- 






I 






HTWITEB STATES QCF AMERICA 






- 



NOTICES OF 



THE REFORMATION 



SOUTH-WEST PROVINCES OF FRANCE. 



BY ROBERT FRANCIS JAMESON 



PUBLISHED BY R. B. SEELEY AND W. BURNSIDE ; 

AND SOLD BY L. AND G. SEELEY, 

FLEET STREET, LONDON. 

MDCCCXXXIX. 






L. AND G. SEELEV, THAMES DITTON, SURREY. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. I. 
Marguerite de Valois et d'Alencon, queen 
of Navarre. - - - 1 

CHAP. II. 

Jeanne d'Albret. - - - - 18 

CHAP. III. 

Letter from cardinal d'Armagnac to the 
queen of Navarre. The queen's reply. - 37 

CHAP. IV. 

Difficulties of the queen. Romanism trium- 
phant. - - - - - 57 

CHAP. V. 

The siege of Navarrenx. The count de 
Montgomery. Rout of the Romanists. - 73 



IV CONTENTS. 

CHAP. VI. 

Total abolition of Romanism in Bearn. Death 
of Jeanne d'Albret. - - - 95 

CHAP. VII. 

Henry III. of Navarre, and IV. of France. 
The princess Catherine of Navarre - 115 

CHAP. VIII. 

Re-establishment of Romanism. Edict of 
fontainebleau. - - - - 132 

CHAP. IX. 
Roman Catholic mission. Death of Henry IV. 160 

CHAP. X. 

Louis XIII. Confirmation of the edict of 
Fontainebleau. Grievances of the Pro- 
testants. - - - - - 163 

CHAP. XL 

Progressive deprivation of Protestant privi- 
leges. - - - - - 184 

CHAP. XII. 

Louis XIV. Tyrannous treatment of the 
Protestants. Their destruction. Present 
state of Protestantism. - - - 197 



INTRODUCTION. 



The south-west of France presents many attrac- 
tions to the traveller and the invalid, from the 
varied character of. the scenery, and the mild 
nature of the climate. The superb city of Bor- 
deaux, and the vine-covered banks of the Garonne, 
lie on the northern frontier of this tract; the 
dreary waste of the Landes occupies its centre ; 
while along the southern limit, the magnificent 
range of the Pyrennees, with their numerous val- 
lies, presents landscapes and climates to suit all 
tastes and constitutions. These latter portions 
comprise what was formerly known as the province 
of Beam, the principal of the several small states 
or counties, which formed the ancient kingdom of 
Navarre. The capital of this little monarchy was 
Pau, a town now possessing fourteen thousand 
inhabitants, situated on a promontory fronting the 
south, whose abrupt cliff overlooks a broad, strag- 



VI INTRODUCTION. 

gling, but unnavigable river, (tne Gave de Pan,) 
and a series of hills tufted with. Chateaux and 
vineyards, above which rise, with stupendous 
grandeur, the snowy tops of the Pyrennees. On 
the highest point of this promontory stands the 
Chateau aV Henri quatre. 

As I purposed making some little stay at Pau, 
I was led to look around me with more steady 
enquiry than mere passers-by either do or can 
do. The ' Pare,' from its English look and name, 
its delicious shade and range of prospect, first 
engaged my attention. A lovely tract of country 
lay before me, with a brilliant sun beaming on it. 
It was market day, and crowds of peasants, (the 
men dressed like Scotch highlanders, the females 
like Welsh women, except the hat,) came pouring 
along the roads, some on rough angular-limbed 
nags, (the women astride,) some in ox-carts, and 
some in wooden shoes, the exact model of a New 
Zealand canoe. All were gabbling their not un- 
musical patois 1 with a cheerful air. Every one, 
old and young, looked comely and good-humoured, 

1 It is a mixture of French and Spanish, as will be seen by this 
verse of one of the popular songs : — 

'.' Au mounde nou y a nat Partou 
Coura lou qui rn'ayme a you ! 
Eth sap parla pla Ion Frances, 
Dab Ian gran yen qu' in ey courtes I 



INTRODUCTION. Vll 

and one might notice, at the meeting of roads, the 
friendly greetings of encountering groups, as they 
jostled on to the Pau market ; and the little aids 
offered to little mishaps, without the seeming 
thought that the delay might lose them a customer 
at the Place de la Halle. This is an amiable 
people, thought I. My next thought was, how 
they became such, for, my good reader, (although 
I call you and the Bearnoise so yet,) I believe 
" there is none good, no not one," naturally. 
Besides here in France, (la belle France,) they 
have had two or three revolutions within the last 
century, in one of which, at least, social demorali- 
zation reached its lowest depth, a jubilee of crime, 
a pandemonium without its dignity or diabolical 
sagacity. 1 Has religion (" pure religion and unde- 

Si pourtabe espade, you crey, 
Que semblare lou Rey." 

In all the world there is not a swain, 
Like he who for me expresses his pain ; 
He speaks the French so wond'rous well, 
Like the great Monsieurs at court do dwell ! 
I think if the sword was beside him to swing, 
He would have all the air and the look of a king. 
1 The squirrel-like humour for revolutions still exists in France. 
The democratic spirit of levelling, which modern intellect seems 
to think sufficient for the reproduction of Paradise, (opposed 
though it be to the course and laws of nature,) would, if it could 
be effected, speedily end in the way the prophet Isaiah has fore- 



VI11 INTRODUCTION. 

filed/') mellowed their character ; thought I. The 
thought was an idle one, for I knew that, in 
this department of the Lower Pyrennees, there 
were four hundred and seven Romanist churches, 
and one Jewish synagogue ; while per contra, there 
were only ten Protestant " temples." Now I am 
not a bigot, when I make this moral computation 
of the effects of doctrine, but — I have travelled, 
and read history: I had noticed, also, the total 
want of respect which the people evince towards 
the Romish Priests. They were jostled about, as if 
they had not been, (both in creed and spirit) the 
legitimate successors of the apostles, and had not 
belonged to the infallible church. 

I turned to the left, and the ancient pile on the 
verge of the cliff was before me. It was the Cha- 
teau, where Marguerite de Valois had discussed 
points of faith with Calvin and Beza, and acquired 
the then rare knowledge of the truth : it was the 
palace where Jeanne d'Albret (the " good Queen 
Bess" of these regions) had reigned, after the 
model of King Josiah, who " did that which was 

told. The restless jarring and selfish contention of men would 
equally exist amongst those equalizers, until worn out and dis- 
gusted with their new state, in which, of course, there could be no 
" decider " amongst them, they would call on some gigantic 
agitator — " Thou hast clothing, be thou our Ruler, and let this 
ruin be under thy hand." (Isaiah iii. 6.) 



INTRODUCTION. IX 

right in the sight of the Lord ; " it was the castle 
where Henri Quatre was born, who, — but I shall 
speak of him hereafter. Now, to my shame be it 
spoken, though I was intimately acquainted with 
Henri, I was not quite so familiar with his mother. 
I had admired her spirited conduct at Rochelle, 
and reverenced her as the mother of a hero ; but I 
was less conversant with her history at home, in 
this her little kingdom, than I ought to have been, 
before I visited her romantic capital. Here, she 
had " fought the good fight of faith," with emi- 
nent success ; here she had planted the standard 
of truth, which, for half a century, had waved in 
these sunny realms, " lifted up on the high moun- 
tains." Might not the little leaven of those days 
have leavened the whole lump of society ? Might 
not the inoculation of truth in the Bearnoise of 
the sixteenth century, have caused their descend- 
ants of the nineteenth to take the common disease 
of our nature more kindly ? 

The interest excited by these ideas, induced me 
to extend my knowledge of the local history of this 
ex-kingdom, and for this purpose I obtained an 
introduction to the Reverend Doctor Don Juan 
de Herrando, the principal librarian of the exten- 
sive collection belonging to the town, preserved in 
the ancient monastery of the Cordeliers. This 
worthy Spaniard, (to whose courtesy and informa- 

b 



X INTRODUCTION. 

tion I am much a debtor,) has been for seven and 
twenty years the superintendant of this library, 
many curious works of which he has rescued from 
the ravages of time and revolution. By his kind- 
ness I was placed in one of the ancient cloisters, 
and provided with materials for attaining the 
object I desired. On one side of me were the 
works of the Protestants, on the other, those of 
the Romanist historians, which I will now enume- 
rate, to save the trouble of more particular refe- 
rence in the subsequent pages. 



Protestants. 


Romanists. 


Olhagaray :- Histoire de 


Favin : Histoire de Na- 


B£arn et Foix. 


varre. 


Daubigne : — Histoire Univer- 


Marca : — Idem. 


selle : (Navarre.) 


Mirasson : — Essai sur l'his- 


Le Due de Rohan : — Me- 


toire de B£arn. 


moires de sa Vie. 


Poeydevant : — Les Troubles 


Le Vassor : Histoire de 


de Be"arn. 


Louis XIII. 


Montlucq : Commentaires 


Bruzen de la Martiniere : — 


de sa Vie. 


Histoire de la Vie de 


Vauvilliers : Histoire de 


Louis XIV. 


Jeanne d'Albret. 


Neutrals ; — Li 


'Ducde Sully, 


Ba 


yle. 



From these sources I derived a knowledge of 
the local history of Beam, which interested me, 
not only as a sojourner there, but also as a native 



INTRODUCTION. XI 

of the British empire. I was particularly struck 
with the similarity between the history of Navarre, 
during the seventeenth century, and that of 
Ireland during the present. The contest between 
the two great branches of Christian doctrine, was 
here carried on, with the same stormy outcry in 
the name of the Prince of Peace. Here were 
seen those, who would " inherit the earth," claim- 
ing their asserted right, not by " meekness," but 
defiance. Here was to be seen a Goliath, professing 
to defend the ark ; and a Samson in his blindness, 
pulling at the pillars of the Lord's temple, instead 
of that of Dagon. One thing however, was not 
to be seen here : men, in the vain conceit of their 
own imaginations, and, in ignorance of the very 
nature of religion, endeavouring to revolutionize 
the kingdom of God into a republic I 

If s biography is history speaking by examples,' 
history illustrates biography by manifesting the 
principles which guided those examples ; and it is 
the knowledge of the motives of human action 
which it is most desirable to attain. For this 
purpose I have drawn up a few ( notices ' of the 
religious history of Beam, in reference to the 
struggle between the Romanists and Protestants. 
The conduct of the Romish Church, in its invari- 
able persecution of those who differ from it, has 
been recorded by numerous examples in history, 
b 2 



Xll INTRODUCTION. 

The more numerous those examples, the more 
certain will be the deduction of the principles 
which guided that conduct. If the conduct of the 
Romish Church in Beam, was precisely similar 
to that which it is now pursuing in Ireland, (and I 
fear also in England,) we must infer that the 
same motives lead to, and the same principles 
govern, the proceedings of that church in the 
latter, as they did in the former instance. God 
grant that the same result may not ensue ! To 
aid in preventing it, (that is, to aid human effort) 
I have put my hand to the rope in sounding the 
tocsin. 

In giving a picture of the times when Protes- 
tantism prevailed in Beam, I have not finished the 
sketch by painting its ruins. The landscape of 
this period would neither be picturesque nor pleas- 
ing. It would be like a view of that part of the 
ocean, where some lamented friend was lost. 

There are only ten small places, (the French 
word "temple" is neither significant nor Chris- 
tian,) of Protestant worship in this district of 
Beam, now the department of the lower Pyren- 
nees. They are at Bayonne, Orthez, Sauveterre, 
Lagorre, Monte, Castletarb, Nay, Osse, Salieres, 
and Pau ; at which latter town, the Protestants 
assemble in a small room, rented by the English 
visitants for their own use. That amiable lady, 



INTRODUCTION. Xlll 

the duchess of Gordon, has purchased a site for 
a Protestant church and school-room, both of 
which are in great forwardness ; but the finishing 
of which is now suspended for want of funds. 
Alas ! that ' all who behold it,' of the Romish 
Church, ' begin to mock.' I wish I could induce 
my readers, (if I have any,) to aid in the restora- 
tion of religion amongst the Bearnoise. They 
are of a mild plastic temperament and lively 
capacity, fitting them for instruction ; they live 
under tolerant laws, and they have the memory 
of ' the good old times ' of Jeanne d'Albret still 
in remembrance, to inspirit the effort for their 
recurrence. Their present Protestant pastor, M. 
Jules Leonard Buscarlet, a man of piety and 
ardent feeling, must find his exertions futile to 
increase his congregation, until a fit place for 
assembly is opened. 

The Romish Church in France is reviving its 
ancient spirit of assumption. The existing laws 
prohibit public processions of Roman ceremonies 
in towns where there are Protestant ( temples.' 
The erection of convents is also illegal. But both 
these prohibitions are violated. The violation 
of the one engenders a disposition openly to con- 
temn other creeds, and exhibits too much air of 
authority and mastery, in a nation which has, 
legally, no established religion. Perhaps the 



XIV INTRODUCTION. 

institution of retreats for the friendless and bro- 
ken-hearted (if restricted to such,) might not be 
objected to, if we did not know the encroaching 
spirit of Romanism, and that in these cloistered 
barracks, its forces have been disciplined for the 
subjugation of the minds (not the hearts,) of men. 
The motives for seeking these retreats are also, 
usually, very questionable. Even the declared 
one, — abhorrence of the world, — is more fretfulness 
than change of spirit. One of the authors of 
the c Chants Chretiens? collected by M. Henri 
Luteroth, has well expressed this. 



C ANTIQUE 122. 

II est aise 1 de te hair 

Monde qui plais, monde qui trompes 

Aise de maudire et fletrir 

Tes biens, tes voluptes, tes pompes. 

Quand on a bu peine et plaisir 

Au vase que tu nous presentes 

Quand on connait ce que tu vantes, 

II est aise de te hair. 

Quand on a vu dans tes douleurs 
Moins d'amertume que en tesf&tes, 
Quand age a fane les couleurs 
Des fleurs dont tu parais nos t§tes : 
Quand Tame, avide de l'avenir, 
Au bout d'une vaine poursuite, 



INTRODUCTION. XV 



Se voit au seiul du dernier gite 
II est aise de te hair. 



It is an easy thing to hate 
The world which cheats thee with its lures ; 
Easy to scorn its wealth and state 
When poverty and pain are yours. 
When cloying joy and bitter woe, 
From the same flowing cup we drain, — 
The world, when all its wiles we know, 
It is full easy to disdain. 

World, when thy very woes are found 

Less bitter than thy pleasures be ; 

When time has stript the wreaths that bound 

Our brows, in hours of festal glee ; 

When, tired of vain pursuit, the soul, 

The future eyes with anxious ken, 

Just on the threshold of the goal, 

Tis easy, world, to hate thee then. 

Pau. January, 1839. 



THE 

REFORMATION IN NAVARRE, 



CHAPTER I. 



MARGUERITE DE VALOIS ET D ALENCON, 
QUEEN OF NAVARRE. 

The doctrines of the Reformation were early dis- 
seminated in France, where many pious and 
enquiring minds, disgusted by the general laxity 
of clerical manners, and revolting from a mental 
subserviency to an ignorant priesthood, had already 
become desirous to receive, if not to attempt re- 
form. 1 A conviction appears to have impressed 
those, who were thus weakened in clerical al- 
legiance, that the doctrines professed and taught 
by a demoralized clergy, must either be erroneous 

1 ' La corruption des moeurs, la dissipation, le jeu, 1'avarice, 
Pignorance et l'oisivete parmi les ecclesiastiques furent les avant- 
coureurs de ce schisme.' Bordenave, Etat des Eglises, 8fc. 
B 



2 CHAPTER I. 

or not have been brought forward to their full 
extent. The principle was the same : the repres- 
sion of truth must either produce or advance error. 
It struck obviously on the opening intellect of the 
age, and roused enquiries, which, however, were 
left unsatisfied, from the difficulty of attaining 
information, since the Romish church had closed 
up the only source of truth. The full and broad 
flood of Gospel light which beamed on such minds, 
when Luther and his brother reformers broke 
down the barriers which had excluded it, was 
truly genial in its influence. As the holy light 
rose on the nations, though the great masses of 
ignorance and superstition stood unpenetrated and 
darkening all within their shadow, yet the rays 
shot hither and thither on many ' a happy val- 
ley ; ' — mind after mind was enlightened, heart 
after heart was warmed. In no part of Europe 
was this renovating influence more rapidly and 
consentaneously experienced than in the south- 
west provinces of France, lying between the 
Garonne and the Pyrennees. This extensive 
tract of country had, formerly, been governed by 
petty but independent princes, the Counts of Foix, 
Beam, &c. but, at the commencement of the 
sixteenth century, was under the dominion of the 
house of Albret : Jean d'Albret (the first of that 
name) having by his marriage with Catharine de 



MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 6 

Foix, obtained the crown of Navarre, of which 
kingdom these provinces formed a principal part. 
In the year 1512, Jean d'Albret the 2nd, (son of 
the preceding) was excommunicated by Pope 
Julius II. as an adherent to the council of Pisa, 
which had been convoked against the decrees and 
interests of that pontiff. Three centuries pre- 
viously, one of Jean d'Albret's maternal ancestors, 
Gaston, Yicomte de Beam, had been equally dis- 
tinguished by the rational glory of Popish excom- 
munication. He had allied himself with the 
Comte de Thoulouse in defending the persecuted 
Albigenses. 

By the Bull which Julius II. issued against 
Jean d'Albret, the kingdom of the latter was de- 
clared forfeited, and given to the first who could 
seize it. Ferdinand of Spain gladly availed him- 
self of this licence, and forthwith took possession 
of High Navarre, or that portion of the Navarrese 
domain which lay on the southern side of the 
Pyrennees. The loss of this territory, which has 
ever since remained annexed to the crown of 
Spain, was not a circumstance likely to dispose 
the king of Navarre to a more amicable feeling 
towards the head of the Roman church. His 
successors inherited this aversion, though it did 
not break out into open opposition to the Romish 
doctrines till the reign of Henry d'Albret the 2nd. 

B 2 



4- CHAPTER I. 

It was during the earlier period of his reign that 
Luther's opinions became generally promulgated. 
In France, as we have already observed, these 
opinions were eagerly received by many ; by none 
with more devoted earnestness of heart and head 
than Marguerite of Valois, Duchess d'Alencon, 
and sister of Francis the 1st of France. This 
amiable, intelligent, and accomplished Princess 
was the daughter of Charles d' Orleans, Comte 
d'Angouleme, and of Louise of Savoy. She was 
born at Angouleme on the 1 1 th of April, 1 492. 
On the death of her father in 1496, Marguerite, 
with her mother, brother, and sister, were taken 
under the protection of the French court, and pro- 
vided with the most ample means of instruction 
which that age afforded. Marguerite early dis- 
tinguished herself by a love of study. She ac- 
quired a thorough knowledge of the Italian and 
Spanish languages, and is even said to have taken 
lessons in Hebrew from Paul Paradis, a celebrated 
scholar of that day. But it was not only by the 
embellishments of education that she was distin- 
guished ; she had a natural elegance of mind, a 
quick and judicious perception, which, joined to a 
peculiar sensitiveness of feeling, produced strength 
and rectitude of thinking, and' established her 
character as a sensible and amiable woman. Her 
early piety was remarkable, the more so, since she 



MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 5 

was brought up under the immediate care of her 
mother Louise of Savoy, who, as Robertson (Hist. 
Charles V. vol. iii.) describes her, was ' a woman, 
deceitful, vindictive, rapacious, and capable of 
sacrificing any thing to the gratification of her 
passions.' In her seventeenth year, such was the 
depth of her religious impressions, that she adopted 
for her device, a marigold bending to the sun (or, as 
it is more expressively noted in French, une fleur 
de souci regardant le soleil) with the motto ' non 
inferiora secutus,' not following lower things. It 
is true that she is represented as having adopted 
this device and motto on her marriage in Decem- 
ber, 1509., with Charles, Duke d'Alen§on, an 
union to which she had a strong repugnance, 
but which she was compelled to enter into by the 
French court from state motives. Still the tone 
of her mind, as well as feeling, is expressed. She 
turned for " perfect peace " unto Him who can 
alone bestow it, and " stayed " her mind with real 
consolation. The marriage was an unhappy one. 
The Duke d'Alengon was neither in person, mind, 
or manners, calculated to gain or retain the affec- 
tions of a Marguerite de Valois. Her residence was 
chiefly at Angouleme, where her little court (of whom 
our Anna Boleyn was one, being a maid of honour) 
passed their time very domestically. Marguerite 
had a taste for poetry, and employed her pen very 



6 CHAPTER I. 

early in such compositions as the taste of the time 
most favoured, in songs, pastorals, and ' mo- 
ralities ' or dramatic dialogues on moral or re- 
ligious subjects. So devoted was the Duchess 
to authorship, that she never travelled without her 
writing-desk, which the grandmother of Brantome, 
the historian, usually held on her knee on such 
occasions. Even while engaged in needlework or 
tapestry, a secretary was always at hand, ready to 
note down her recitations. The fruits of her 
aptitude and preparation were numeous. The 
earliest work ascribed to her was the * Tales' — 
(' Contes de la Reine de Navarre ') which, though 
now the only production bearing her name, that 
is generally known, yet there is good reason to 
doubt that it was written by her. The levity, al- 
most grossness, of these Tales is utterly at vari- 
ence with the character of Marguerite. All the 
other works, ascribed to her, were published in 
her life time,butthe " Contes,' 5 were not published 
till nine years after her decease, viz. in 1558, and 
then without any authors name attached to them. 
In the first edition there were only sixty-seven 
tales ; in subsequent editions, many others were 
added, an unusual, and very unlikely procedure in 
the publication of a deceased writer's works. The 
only ground for the supposition that Marguerite 
had been the authoress of the work, seems to have 



MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. i 

been that its object was to expose the misconduct 
of the Romish clergy. The period at which it 
was published in Paris, (in 1558,) was apparently 
selected to excite odium against the royal family 
of Navarre in the minds of the Romanists. At 
that very time the king and queen of Navarre, 
(the latter the daughter of Marguerite,) had quit- 
ted Paris for their own dominions, highly offended 
with the French king, because, in the conferences at 
Cercamp, for negociating peace with Spain, the 
interests of the Navarrese monarch had been 
entirely neglected. It is not probable that a 
friend, either to the family or memory of Mar- 
guerite de Valois, would have selected so inaus- 
picious period for publishing a work of so very 
questionable a character, and none but a friend 
could have possessed either the materials or the 
power to publish. 

The work, however, by the production of which 
she was principally distinguished during her life, 
was that entitled " Le Miroir deVame pechereuse." 
This book, which was published at Alencon in 
1531, exhibits a spirit of true piety and well-con- 
sidered doctrine. It evinces a mind that had 
been accustomed to self-examination, and tho- 
roughly instructed in pure and scriptural religion. 
The Roman Catholic doctrines of the merit of 
works, of purgatory, and the intercessory and 



8 CHAPTER I. 

mediatorial power of the Virgin and the Saints, are 
entirely set aside, ( The blood of Christ alone,' 
says Beza, * was her all-sufficient remedy.' ' Mar- 
guerite,' observes another French writer, (M. 
Eusebe Castaigne) l semble avoir toujours en vue 
cette parole, de Saint Paul, in Adam omnes 
moriuntur, in Christo omnes vivificabantur.' 1 
Cor. xv. 22. So great was the celebrity of this 
work, that our Queen Elizabeth translated it into 
English, and it was ( Imprinted in Apryl of the 
yeare of our Lord 1548,' under the title of ( A 
Godlie Meditation of the Christian soule.' 

This work of the Duchess d'Alencon, though 
undoubtedly original in its matter and opinions, 
seems, however, to have been but an imitation of 
another with nearly similar title, which had been 
published eight years before the birth of Mar- 
guerite, viz. in 1484, by ' Robin Fouquet et 
Jehan Chrees.' 

The Duke d'Alencon died in April 1525, leav- 
ing the Duchess still in the bloom of life and 
literary reputation, but without issue. Whatever 
her feelings might have been on this occasion, the 
capture of her brother, Francis the First, at the 
fatal battle of Pa via, but a few weeks previous, 
seems to have absorbed all its expression. Francis 
and his sister had always been warmly attached, 
and had lived on the most confidential terms. 



MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 9 

His ' Marguerite des Marguerites? as he used to 
call her, 1 had often endeavoured to temper his 
gaiety by sober counsel, and was always listened 
to with attention, if not with effect. When the 
Duchess heard of his illness at Madrid, where he 
was imprisoned by the Emperor Charles the Fifth, 
she immediately determined to go to his assist- 
ance, and having procured a i safe conduct ' from 
the Spanish monarch, proceeded to that capital. 
The health and spirits of Francis were restored by 
the tender care of his sister. It is related of her 
(Oligaray, p. 502,) that she passed her time in 
reading to her brother, chiefly from the Bible, to 
which Francis was then very attentive. 1 She 
strictly adhered to the advice she had given to one 
of her dependents (Bertrand Elie,) viz. ( that he 
should never allow a day to pass without having 
attentively read several pages of the Holy Scrip- 
tures, and thus, by bathing our souls in the celes- 
tial liquor they distil, we shall be faithfully pre- 
served against all kinds of evils and diabolical 
temptations.' With these endeavours for the 
eternal advantage of her brother, she added every 
effort for his temporal benefit. Having obtained 

1 Marguerite is the French word for a daisy. 
2 What an interesting subject for a Protestant painter : 
the gay, but almost despairing Francis listening to the Scripture 
lessons of his pious sister. 

B 5 



10 CHAPTER I. 

an interview with the Emperor, she urged every 
motive that might be likely to induce him to 
release his prisoner, ending with threats which so 
moved the conqueror's anger, that he is said to 
have determined to imprison her at the expiration 
of the period assigned for her safe conduct. The 
usual time required for a journey from Madrid to 
the French frontier, was then about fifteen days, 
but Marguerite, who had lingered in the vain 
hope of releasing her brother, having obtained 
information of the Emperor's design, suddenly 
set out from Madrid on horseback, and accom- 
plishing the journey in eight days, reached the 
frontier at the end of the day on which her safe 
conduct expired. 

Francis obtained his liberty not long after this 
period, and in 1527 gave his sister Marguerite in 
marriage to Henry d'Albret, (the second of that 
name,) King of Navarre. Marguerite was then 
in her thirty-fifth year, Henry in his twenty- 
fifth. He was a man of a spirited and yet suffi- 
ciently judicious character. He had shared the 
fate of his friend and ally, Francis, at the battle 
of Pavia; but escaped from confinement by a 
daring and ingenious stratagem. His opinions 
appear to have been inclined towards the doctrine, 
or, at least the party of the Reformers; and in 
the maintenance of these, his queen, Marguerite 



MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 11 

d'Alencon, was a ready ally. It was at this period 
that a persecution of the Protestants commenced in 
Germany, and extending to France, numbers of 
the most eminent, and, consequently, the most 
exposed to danger amongst the Reformers, fled 
for refuge to the little court of the sovereigns of 
Navarre. The chief portion of the dominions 
then remaining to the d'Albret family, was the 
province of Beam. The court of the sovereign 
was held alternately at Pau and the castle of Bar- 
barte near Nerac. At the latter of these places, 
the Queen of Navarre received the celebrated 
Calvin, then scarcely of age, and a number of 
other distinguished individuals ; who, as Calvin 
declared, came to her as one ( who was promoting 
the kingdom of God.' 1 Amongst these was 
Gerard Roussel, a professor of the Sorbonne, — 
Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples, one of the most en- 
lightened men of the age, — Clement Marot, the 
celebrated translator of the Psalms of David, — 
Pierre Caroli, — Etienne Dolet, &c. The first of 
these, (Roussel,) was a man eminent for his know- 
ledge of Scripture, and the mild and progressive 
mode in which he advanced reform. He was 
peculiarly careful not to offend ancient prejudice, 
or to startle the wakening minds of those amongst 

1 ' Quod Deus (ilia) usus fuerit ad regnum suum proraoven- 
dum.' 



12 CHAPTER I. 

whom he moved, by too rapid an advance. This 
offended the more ardent spirit of young Calvin, 
who denounced him as a temporizer. 1 But 
the procedure of Roussel was approved of by 
the Queen, who, in appointing him the court 
preacher, required him, when the first public 
service of the reformed worship was performed by 
him, to officiate in the dress of a monk. He was 
accustomed to say, when attacked respecting his 
apparent non-conformity to the then existing 
sects of reform, ' Je ne suis pas Lutheriste, ni 
Zuingliste, mais Rousseliste.' His opinions, how- 
ever, were purely evangelical. He caused the 
Scriptures to be read in French in the churches, 
arid the eucharist to be administered to the laity 
in both kinds, teaching that the Saviour was 
present only to the eye of faith. He abolished 
the worship of images, and the invocation of 
saints, and rejected the authority of the Holy 
See, which he charged with having blemished 
the purity of the religion of Jesus Christ, by gross 
superstitions. In 1543, Roussel was made bishop 
of Oloron, in Beam, which see had a revenue of 
eighteen hundred crowns, an ample provision in 
those days. In this new station, he in a great 
measure threw off his cautious process of reform, 

1 Epist. Calvini : Epist. 62. The Queen of Navarre wrote to 
Calvin, on this occasion, justifying the conduct of Roussel. 



MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 13 

promoting its progress by the most active mea- 
sures. His zeal was ultimately the cause of his 
death. 

The district of Soule, which formed part of 
the diocese of Oloron, had remained unmoved by 
changes of opinion, and was considered one of 
the strong-holds of the Romish faith. Roussel 
despatched thither one of his chaplains, who had 
been an Augustinian monk, as a missionary of the 
reformed religion. The preacher more particu- 
larly inveighed, like the proto-reformer of Ger- 
many, against indulgences. A great crowd as- 
sembled to hear him in the church of Mauleon. 
While he was declaiming against the superstitious 
usages of the place, one of the chief residents, 
named Pierre Maytie, roused by hearing their 
1 Diana ' traduced, stood up and opposed him ; 
and having excited the congregation against the 
preacher, he was pulled out of the pulpit, and 
driven with insult out of the town. The bishop 
of Oloron felt it necessary to punish this insult, 
and set out himself for Mauleon to re-estab- 
lish his authority. He mounted the same pulpit, 
and addressed the people respecting the errors of 
their faith ; but Maytie was again there, standing 
close to the pulpit, wrapped up in a huge cloak. 
While Roussel was in the full animation of his 
address, Maytie drew forth a hatchet from under 



14 CHAPTER I. 

his cloak, and commenced cutting away the pillars 
of the pulpit. The tumult spread, the pulpit 
was soon levelled, and Roussel, still in it, thrown 
prostrate on the ground, bruised and almost life- 
less. He escaped from the immediate conse- 
quences of their fury, but died shortly after from 
the injuries then sustained. 

The death of Roussel was a great loss to the 
queen, whose efforts in the cause of reform had 
latterly met with great discouragement from the 
king of Navarre. Whether from a fear of offend- 
ing Francis T. — from the persuasion of his Roman 
Catholic courtiers, — or from the unstable and half- 
enlightened nature of his own religious impressions, 
Henry became an opponent of the doctrines he 
had formerly favoured. He is said, on one oc- 
casion, to have gone to the queen's apartments, 
(where he had heard that a protestant minister 
was engaged in worship,) full of fury against the 
innovating teacher, and finding that he had fled, 
to have struck the queen, and declared he would 
inform her brother the king of France of her 
conduct. Francis immediately wrote to his sister, 
reprobating her support of the Protestants, and 
urging her to adhere to the f ancient faith. 
Marguerite replied, that her commiseration for 
the misfortunes of so many pious and learned in- 
dividuals had led her to aid them, but that she 



MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 15 

had never designed to quit the ' ancient faith.' 
Marguerite, who never passed a day { sans avoir 
attentivement vaquee a la lecture du Livre Sacre,' 
knew well what the c ancient faith ' was. 

But the reformed opinions had already taken 
root in Beam. The discussion of points of doc- 
trine became general : those who argued were 
necessarily led to enquiry, which was amply aided 
by the many able and pious reformers, who had 
congregated in this district ; while the Romish 
clergy, sunk in lethargy and ignorance, had little 
disposition and less ability for such mental contests. 
To check this spirit of enquiry, the king of 
Navarre issued a decree, on the 30th of August 
1546, ' forbidding the clergy to preach, without 
having been previously examined and approved of 
by their bishops ; and all persons were cautioned 
against disputing on religion in taverns, cabarets, 
public places, or private houses.' The absurdity 
and inefficacy of this latter injunction, was soon 
apparent. Restrictions of this nature have gene- 
rally been found the best promoters of what they 
were designed to obviate. The deprivation of one 
sense has been said to quicken the power of 
another ; so by restricting the expression of 
opinion, the inclination to form it was increased. 

But this restrictive ordonnance, though ineffec- 
tual in repressing the opinions of the Bearnois, 
was enforced on their queen, with the added 



16 CHAPTER I. 

agency of domestic surveillance. Marguerite does 
not appear to have lived happily with Henry of 
Navarre during the latter period of their union. 
She was now in her fifty -fifth year, and her hus- 
band was still in the summer period of man's life ; 
a disparity not always considered compensated by 
the grace and beauty of mental character. One 
daughter alone remained as the fruit of their 
union, — Jeanne d'Albret, born at the Chateau 
de Pau, the 7th of January, 1528. But this only 
child was separated from her parents by the para- 
mount influence of the king of France, who 
dreaded that her hand might be given to young- 
Philip of Spain by her father, and her mind drawn 
away from Romanism by her mother. To pre- 
vent these consequences, injurious alike to his 
interests and his inclination, Francis, compulsorily, 
married his niece, when only in her twelfth year, 
to the Duke of Cleves. 1 The lonely mother was 
thus deprived of the society of her child, and when 
her next warmest object of regard, her brother 
Francis, died, (March 31, 1547) her spirit seems to 
have forsaken her, and the world to have become 
valueless. She retired to the little village of 
Tusson in Angouleme, joining a religious com- 

1 It is said that the infant bride was so overloaded with the 
weight of her gorgeous finery, as to be unable to walk ; which 
compelled the constable of France to carry her in his arms from 
her carriage to the church. 



MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 17 

munity of females, over whom she presided. Sub- 
sequently she removed to the Chateau d'Odos, 
near Tarbes, where she died December 21, 1549, 
from the effects of exposure in observing a comet 
which was then visible. While gazing anxiously 
at the celestial stranger, she was seized with para- 
lysis, and, being immediately removed to her bed, 
died in eight days after. Her senses do not ap- 
pear to have entirely forsaken her, even under the 
influence of the distressing malady which had 
attacked her. On hearing it observed that she 
was going to felicity — ' Not yet,' she exclaimed — 
' I must sleep a long time in the earth first.' 
The Romish writers claim her as a re-convert, 
because, in her dying moments, she kissed a 
crucifix which was placed before her. She, who 
had embraced the cross in early life, and had so 
long borne it typically by patient endurance, 
might, surely, while in the agony of leaving one 
world, and in the earnest expectation of entering 
another, have clasped a crucifix without any super- 
stitious feeling. The materialism of religion could 
have had but little influence over the dying senses 
of a Christian like the Queen of Navarre, who, 
while her paralytic hands grasped a crucifix, 
sufficiently declared the sort of feeling with 
which she viewed it, by thrice exclaiming, as she 
expired — c Jesus ! Jesus ! Jesus ! ' 



CHAPTER II. 



JEANNE D ALBRET, 



Henry d'Albret (the 2nd.) of Navarre, sur- 
vived his Queen about six years. His govern- 
ment was mild and beneficial to his people, nor 
does he appear to have enforced his ( Ordonnance ' 
against the Reformed doctrines with any severity, 
but to have satisfied himself with declaring his 
own opinions by his publication. The incongruous 
marriage of his daughter, Jeanne d'Albret, with 
the Duke of Cleves, had been dissolved by Papal 
license, and another contracted (October 20, 1548) 
with Antoine de Bourbon, Duke de Vendome. 
The Princess was young and handsome, lively, 
and, as Brantome tells us, ' aimait une danse 
aussitot qu'un sermon/ She was of a shrewd dis- 
cerning intellect, possessing the literary propen- 
sities and tastes of her mother, but with a far 
more determined and self-confident spirit. Though 
brought up in the Romish faith, yet she had 



JEANNE D'ALBRET. 19 

a full knowledge of the reformed doctrines, 
and early manifested an aversion to the grosser 
superstitions of Popery, yet without any ear- 
nest adherence to either faith. An anecdote is 
related of her, which seems to illustrate both the 
lightness of her temperament and of her religious 
impressions. The two eldest children of her 
second marriage had died in infancy. Her father 
despaired of having descendants to his throne, 
when, on the eve of the birth of her third child, 
afterwards the celebrated Henry IV. of France, 
she arrived at the Chateau de Pau, her father's 
residence. Henry d'Albret anxiously awaited the 
birth, of an heir, which Jeanne had told him she 
would announce by singing a Bearnoise song, and 
being in the ante-chamber at the time of her 
accouchment, he heard her chanting the invocation 
to the Virgin, used by the common people — 
* Noustre Dame deii cap deii pont, adjudatme a 
d'aqueste hore.' ( Our Lady of the Bridge-head, 
assist me in this hour!' This was in 1553. In 
1555 the King of Navarre died, and Jeanne d'Al- 
bret ascended the throne of her ancestors. On 
the 18th of August, 1555, Jeanne, and her hus- 
band Antoine de Bourbon were crowned, taking 
the usual oaths, according to the forms of the Ro- 
man Catholic Church, to the rites and discipline of 
which they in every respect conformed. Two 



20 CHAPTER II. 

days after this solemn ceremony, the estates of 
Beam (consisting of the nobility, clergy, and de- 
puties of towns) presented an address to their new- 
sovereigns, stating that ' A sect had latterly 
sprung up, infected with heresy, which offended 
the faithful by their contempt and transgression 
of the divine precepts ; that, as it was the duty of 
the sovereign to protect the church against all 
injustice and persecution, they prayed their ma- 
jesties to exhort the bishops to search diligently 
after these new sectaries, and to direct that, in 
case of negligence on the part of the prelates, the 
delinquents should be prosecuted by the judges 
of the ordinary court, who should report, every 
two months, their prpceedings thereon ; and that 
proclamation should be made by sound of trumpet 
in all towns and markets, commanding all classes 
of people to abstain from disputing on, or in any 
manner questioning the constitutions of the church. 

It is evident, from the presentation and terms 
of this address, that the Reformed doctrines were, 
as yet, chiefly confined to the lower classes of the 
Bearnoise people, although some, at least, of the 
prelates were disposed to favour them. That the 
' sect ' had become considerable in number is also 
evinced by ( all classes of people in all towns and 
markets? requiring a legislative admonition. 

The king and queen of Navarre averred, in 



JEANNE D'ALBRET. 21 

their answer to this address, that l they desired to 
extirpate heresy in their dominions, and would 
direct the bishops to proceed against heretics in 
conformity with the edict of the late king Henry, 
issued in 1546.' An order was subsequently pub- 
lished, threatening the prelates with the seizure of 
their temporalities, in the case of laxity in the 
pursuit of heretics, and directing certain legal 
proceedings for their prosecution, ' in order that 
all heresy and all heretics should be exterminated.' 
Notwithstanding this apparent inquisitorial vigour, 
no prosecution was commenced against the new 
heresy. Jeanne d'Albret, when she came to re- 
side in Beam, was brought into association with 
the friends of her late mother. These faithful 
adherents were the Protestant exiles whom the 
pious and tender-hearted Marguerite had sheltered 
from persecution ; the learned Theodore Beza, 
the eloquent Henri Barran, and the enthusiastic 
and venerable Jaques Lefevre, who, when in the 
hundred and first year of his age, lamented, with 
his dying breath, that he had missed the crown of 
martyrdom. These and other eminent individuals 
were gladly welcomed by the filial feeling and 
acute understanding of the queen of Navarre. 
Her mother's writings and personal example were 
admonitory records ; her mother's friends, illus- 
trious examples, of the purer doctrines which she 



22 CHAPTER II. 

found extending around her. The king, her hus- 
band, who was of a vacillating temper, appears to 
have been lured by the talents of those whom the 
Queen had received into favour, to listen with 
complacency, if not with conviction. Under these 
circumstances, the fulminations against heresy 
were mere summer thunderings, which, instead of 
causing ravage, only cleared and refreshed the 
atmosphere. 

So great was the encouragement given by the 
sovereigns of Navarre to the remnant of the re- 
formers who remained in that kingdom, after 
the death of Marguerite de Valois, that many 
others shortly joined them. Amongst these was 
aGenevese minister, Francis Guy de Boisnormand, 
a man of considerable talent, who, with Henri 
Barran, formerly a monk of Beam, obtained so 
great an influence over the Queen, that she be- 
came a decided patroness of their doctrines. The 
Navarrese court again became the place of refuge 
for the oppressed Protestants of France and Ger- 
many, and, on every side, the welcomed strangers 
repaid the hospitality they received, by their mis- 
sionary efforts. 

These proceedings soon attracted the notice of 
the courts of Rome and Paris. Threats and 
admonitions were addressed to the king and 
queen of Navarre. To obviate the consequences 



JEANNE D'ALBRET. 23 

of these denunciations, especially from their feudal 
superior, the king of France, the Navarrese sove- 
reigns determined to proceed to Paris, leaving the 
young prince Henry, (born Dec. 23, 1553) under 
the guardianship of Louis d' Albert, bishop of 
Lescar, and of Susanne de Bourbon, Baroness 
Miossens ; while the government of the state was 
committed to the Cardinal d'Armagnac. One of 
the first proceedings of the latter was to imprison 
Henri Barran, and order Boisnormond to quit 
Beam ; while the husband of Susanne de Bour- 
bon (the Baron de Miossens) and the bishop of 
Lescar, as President of the States, equally lent 
themselves to the establishment of coercive mea- 
sures against the Reformers. A proclamation was 
issued, f forbidding all private meetings for prayer 
and devotion ; denouncing all those, who did not 
conform to the rites and usages of the Romish 
Church, as subject to banishment and forfeiture 
of goods; and warning all persons neither to read 
or lend books, that lay under the censure of the 
church/ 

These measures appear to have been enforced 
with rigour, and, though the coerced Protestants 
of Beam appealed to their sovereigns in France, 
yet they were unable to obtain relief, the influ- 
ence of the French Court being paramount. 
Such was the degree of apprehension entertained 



24 CHAPTER II. 

by Antoine and his queen, that they considered 
it expedient to attend mass publicly at Nerac, 
with the young Prince Henry, when they re- 
turned to Beam, and despatched Pierre d'Albret, 
Bishop of Commenges, to the Pope, with assur- 
ances of their allegiance to the Roman See. At 
the same time, (March 1560,) they issued an 
* ordonnance,' for the due observance of ecclesias- 
tical discipline. 

In these measures, the king of Navarre seems 
to have been a more willing participant than his 
queen. While at Paris she had publicly attended 
the Protestant worship, at the Pre aux Clercs^ 
and her domestic chaplain, (M. David,) was a 
minister of that church. But the king her hus- 
band had domestic alleviators of another kind; 
he carried with him a company of theatrical per- 
formers. His religious opinions, or rather, his 
formulae of religion, had, also, during this sojourn 
at the French court, been drawn into greater con- 
formity with established usages ; having been in- 
duced to believe, that his temporal interests would 
suffer from too daring a profession of the new 
doctrines. The laxity of his moral conduct, in 
respect of his conjugal vows, had caused much 
coldness between his queen and himself. The 
influence of Jeanne d'Albret was thus materially 
weakened ; but through the same cause, the in- 



JEANNE D'ALBRET. 25 

fluence of religion on Jeanne was greatly strength- 
ened. Whether the rule of patient endurance, 
both as to public and private evils, caused her ac- 
quiescence in an apparent adhesion to the Romish 
faith, cannot now be determined. The policy of 
the measure was questionable, especially when it is 
considered that no devious or simulative act can 
either be sanctioned by or tend to promote reli- 
gion. But the subsequent conduct of the queen of 
Navarre made a large atonement for this error. 

The death of Francis II. king of France, (5th 
of Dec. 1560,) occasioned the return of Antoine 
and the queen to St. Germain. Here the king of 
Navarre, either tired with the restraints of the 
severer code of the Reformers, or, as it is alleged, 
being really converted to Romanism by a priest 
named Baldwin, publicly professed that faith, and 
so far evinced his sincerity, that he removed 
Lagauchere, the Protestant tutor of his son prince 
Henry, and placed him under the entire control 
of Romish teachers. He used also every effort 
to induce the queen to renounce her opinions, 
proceeding even to harshness in the height of 
his zeal. But Jeanne d'Albret remained firm 
in the reformed faith, declaring i that sooner 
than ever again go to mass or suffer her king- 
dom or her child to do so, she would, were it 
possible, cast them into the depths of the sea to 
c 



26 CHAPTER II. 

hinder it.' * An ocular witness (the cardinal de 
Ferrara) narrates 2 that, on one occasion, Jeanne 
took her young son (then eight years of age) in her 
arms, and ■ uttered a long and earnest exhortation 
to him never to attend the mass in any way what- 
ever ; and, that if he disobeyed her in that, he 
might be assured she would disinherit him and no 
longer consider herself his mother.' Did the 
remembrance of that strongly expressed, but fond 
and maternal exhortation, glance on the mind or 
heart of Henry IV. when, in 1593, he bowed 
before the idols and incense of Notre Dame ? 

A character, at once so warm and so firm, could 
not hesitate on a course of proceeding. In the 
beginning of April 1561, Jeanne d'Albret was sud- 
denly missed from the palace of her husband, and 
the court of France. She had fled to the hills of 
her native Beam, and the more congenial advisers 
which they sheltered. The king of Navarre, 
who was governor of the French province of 
Gruienne, despatched instructions to his Lieu- 
tenant, Blaise de Montlucq, a zealous opponent of 
the Protestants, to intercept the royal fugitive. 
But the queen had prepared for her flight, by 
previously directing her seneschal in Beam, the 
Sieur de Dandaux, to meet her on the banks of 

1 Beza. Hist. Eccles. 1. p. 689. 

2 Lettres Politiques, p. 136. 



JEANNE D'ALBRET. 27 

the Garonne, with as large a force as he could 
assemble. Dandaux, who subsequently became a 
traitor to the Protestant cause, and was a man 
of loose life, in this instance so effectually per- 
formed his duty, that the queen reached Pau in 
safety. 

The protectress of the reformed interest arrived 
most opportunely for its aid and maintenance. 

Shortly after the death of Francis II, in 
1560, the king of Navarre, then at St. Ger- 
main's, had, in conjunction with the queen 
Regent of France, issued a commission to Blaise 
de Montlucq, lieutenant-governor of Guienne, 
to raise a force for the maintenance of order 
in Beam, and the bordering provinces. The 
contests between the Romanists and Reformers 
had become serious, for the number and power of 
the latter had so increased, that the former had to 
contend with nearly equal strength in opposing 
the advance of the ' new opinions.' The dark 
bigotry of the one party, and the fervid zeal of 
the other, were perpetually in conflict. Earnest 
religious feeling is essentially missionary, and we 
know that even the Pharisees would " compass sea 
and land to make one proselyte." Thus a sort of 
invasive principle is necessarily inherent in all 
sects, which does not permit a truce, and counter- 
acts the usual neutralizing effect of equality. At 
c 2 



28 



CHAPTER II. 



Bourdeaux, and at Auch, the two parties being 
nearly equal, disputed the possession of the 
churches ; and throughout the whole range of 
country, from the Garonne to the Pyrennees, the 
near approach to equality produced aggression 
and contest. 

Montlucq, who had been appointed to appease 
and quell these disorders, was a daring unhesita- 
ting leader, a bigotted Romanist, and an unscru- 
pulous pursuer of his object. His brother GeofFroi 
de Montlucq had been a monk, and when Pro- 
testantism was in favour at the court of Navarre, 
under the auspices of Marguerite de Valois, he 
left his cloister and served that princess in several 
diplomatic missions, for which his character was 
peculiarly fitted. When the times changed, 
Geoffroi changed also, and became bishop of 
Valence. 

The powers of Blaise de Montlucq were ample ; 
he was to raise troops, 'pour courir sus,' to run 
down all offenders against the peace ; but two 
counsellors were appointed to attend him, Messrs. 
Compain and Gerard, who, desiring to apply the 
deliberative judgment of law, instead of the sum- 
mary measures of war, to the breaches of order, 
are styled by Montlucq, in his Memoirs, ' the 
worst men in all France.' Instead, therefore, of 
these * meschants hommes,' he selected two able- 



JEANNE D'ALBRET. 29 

bodied men, armed with strong battle-axes, who, 
being constantly attendant on him, were popularly 
styled his lacquies. In addition to these, he raised 
a body of arquebusiers and pikemen, and taking 
his station at Bourdeaux, waited a fit occasion to 
commence his work of pacification. Before his 
troops were ready to take the field, a commotion 
broke out at La Plume, where two Protestants 
had been imprisoned by the authorities. Their 
fellow-religionists surrounded the town, demand- 
ing their liberation, but Montlucq had, as yet, 
only three hundred men arrayed, and therefore 
advised the magistrates to release their prisoners. 

Not long after this, the magistrates at Agen 
endeavoured to seize a Protestant minister in that 
town, but were prevented by the people, who 
espoused his cause. Montlucq marched forthwith, 
overawed the people, secured the minister, and 
left him to the tender mercies of his persecutors. 
These, and other similar acts of oppression on 
conscience, excited the Protestants to resistance. 
At Marmaude they arose, attacked and burnt the 
Franciscan monastery, and drove the friars from 
the town. At Cahors and at Grenade, the Ro- 
manists took the lead, and massacred many of 
their opponents. Inspired by this success of his 
party, Montlucq took the field, but was previously 
waited on by a Protestant minister, M. de 



30 CHAPTER II. 

Barelle, who came on the part of the Protestants, 
to lay their grievances before him. Montlucq 
states, that Barelle offered him, on the part of the 
Protestants, a body of four thousand men, to be 
paid by that party, to be placed under his com- 
mand for the preservation of order. This offer, 
whether truly affirmed or not, is a sufficient proof 
of the strength and wealth of the reformers. But 
Montlucq was enraged at this presumption, as he 
termed it, and taking Barelle by the throat, 
threatened to hang him from the balcony of his 
house. Perhaps there is no fact that so fully 
illustrates the confidence of the Protestants, both 
in the justice and strength of their cause, than the 
return of Barelle, not long afterwards, to Mont- 
lucq, accompanied with the celebrated preacher 
Boisnormand, for the purpose of again propitia- 
ting the fiery general, by a statement of the inju- 
ries and oppression their party had suffered. This 
was, indeed, entering the lion's den, but the same 
power which protected Daniel, ensured their 
safety. 

That very night Montlucq secretly despatched 
his son-in-law, M. de Fontenelle, with a body of 
men to St. Menard, in order to seize the persons 
of several obnoxious Protestants, particularly M. 
Yerdier, a nephew of the queen of Navarre's 
advocate. The mission was successfully executed, 



JEANNE D'ALBRET. 31 

and Verdier, with a deacon of one of the reformed 
churches, and two others, were brought into the 
presence of Montlucq. After a fierce declama- 
tion against the offending religionists, especially 
against Verdier, for having affirmed that he served 
a greater king than the governor of France, Mont- 
lucq seized the latter by the collar, and dashing him 
to the ground, ordered his two ' lacquies' who were 
present, to despatch him, which they did, by hack- 
ing him to death. Two others were hung, equally 
without form or trial, on an elm tree close by, and 
the poor deacon was flogged so unmercifully, that 
he died in eight days after. Six gentlemen, and 
thirty others of inferior rank, who had been taken 
prisoners at Saint Livrade by a detachment of 
Montlucq's forces, were also hung without judi- 
cial inquiry. 

These butcheries only tended to exasperate the 
Reformers and compelled them to associate for 
defence. The town of Nerac was gained posses- 
sion of by them ; Leizac and Bazas were organized 
for resistance, and Lectoure (a fortified town near 
Agen) was occupied by them. 

In this state of affairs the queen of Navarre 
arrived in Beam. Her first care was to write to 
Montlucq to suspend his operations, on her under- 
taking to oblige the Protestants to lay down their 
arms. But Montlucq, though desirous of the 



32 CHAPTER II. 

latter result, would not relinquish his crusade 
against the faith. He was aware that the queen, 
though the hereditary sovereign of Navarre, acted 
without, or rather in opposition to, the wishes and 
sanction of her husband. Her seneschal, the 
sieur de Dandaux kept up a treacherous, it may- 
be styled a treasonable correspondence with the 
duke of Guise, the head of the Romish party. 
M. de Burie, the governor of Beam, was a timid 
man and pressed the queen to give up the protec- 
tion of the Protestant party, for fear of political 
consequences. But Jeanne d' Albret acted from 
higher motives than policy ; she was firm in her 
faith and in its maintenance, and resolute in her 
measures. A body of five hundred Bearnaise 
troops were despatched by her to the assistance of 
the Protestants, shut up in Lectoure, by the forces 
of Montlucq. M. de Bugoles, who commanded in 
Lectoure, on hearing of the approach of the Bear- 
naise corps, sallied forth to meet them, but the 
two bands fell into an ambuscade, were routed, 
and Lectoure was taken. The captured Protes- 
tants suffered death by the orders of Montlucq. 
Nerac was also taken by storm by his forces, 
who drove out all of the Reformed party ; men, 
women, and children flying from his merciless 
sword to the protection of the queen. The many 
defeats suffered by the Protestants at this time, 



JEANNE D'ALBRET. 33 

although they brought far more force into the 
field than Montlucq, may be adduced as proofs 
that their rising was not the result of long-designed 
and organized plans, but that they were driven 
into a defensive, and, as it must be acknowledged, 
sometimes an offensive array. Montlucq (who has 
left us an account of his exploits in which he 
details his cruelties as laudable exercises of 
( Catholic* zeal) states that ' one could not touch 
the lowest Protestant without rousing the ire of 
the whole body ; ' an unconscious testimony to the 
deep influence of a pure faith in banding heart to 
heart and hand to hand, without respect to the 
usual selfish considerations of personal interest or 
safety. 

At this juncture Antony de Bourbon, king of 
Navarre, died (17 November, 1562) of a wound 
received at the siege of Rouen, while engaged 
against the Huguenot party. Jeanne was conse- 
quently left uncontrolled mistress of her own 
actions. Antony and she had never met since 
they parted at Paris in April 1561. Their public 
conduct had been equally at variance. Antony 
having sided with the Romanist party and com- 
missioned Montlucq to act in Beam, while Jeanne 
supported the Protestants and opposed the opera- 
tions of that ferocious leader. She now deter- 
mined to act as an independent sovereign. 
c 5 



34 CHAPTER II. 

After several preparatory edicts (ordering an 
appropriation of fifteen thousand livres tournois 
{£625.) out of the ecclesiastical revenues of Beam 
for the maintenance of the Reformed worship ; 
decreeing a registry of the valuables of the churches, 
and freedom of admission to the Reformed clergy 
to all parochial places of worship, for the adminis- 
tration of baptism and marriage, — Jeanne publicly 
received the communion, according to the Re- 
formed rite, at the church of St. Martin at Pau, 
on Easter day 1563. The public processions of 
the Roman church, especially the Fete Dieu, were 
prohibited ; a restriction against which the estates 
of Beam remonstrated in the strongest terms. 
The queen replied, that a double motive had 
induced her to issue these decrees, viz. the dis- 
charge of her own duty and conscience, and the 
safety of the souls of her subjects ; and, in answer 
to a second remonstrance from the estates, briefly 
commanded them not to set an example of disobe- 
dience to her decrees. 

The opposition of the estates, or higher orders 
of the realm would, doubtless, have involved the 
queen in considerable difficulties, had not the 
bishop of Lescar, a cousin of the queen's, and 
the first in rank of the episcopal order, given an 
example of great weight, by enforcing the prohi- 
bition in his diocese, and by dismantling his 



JEANNE d'aLBRET. 35 

cathedral of its gorgeous altars, images, and other 
anti-scriptural devices. He even appointed two 
Protestant ministers, who had formerly been 
monks, to preach in the cathedral and administer 
the reformed communion to the queen, who went 
expressly to Lescar to support and commemorate 
this reform. At Oloron, the next diocese in epis- 
copal rank, the queen was not so successful. 
Claude Regin, the bishop of Oloron, had suc- 
ceeded Roussel the Reformed head of that dio- 
cese, after a lapse of eight years, during which 
there had been no bishop. The people of Oloron 
had become strengthened in the doctrines of the 
Reformation, but Regin, the new bishop, was a 
bigotted Romanist, and opposed their progress. 
The prohibition was received by him and his 
clergy with the utmost hostility. They fortified 
the Episcopal Palace and prepared for open and 
determined resistance, but the clergy were not 
seconded by the people, and the queen having 
despatched one of her judges and other officers to 
Oloron, the malcontents were arrested, and after 
a short imprisonment, released without further 
punishment. 

The Romish clergy finding opposition fruitless, 
vented their indignation in a statement of their 
grievances to cardinal d' Armagnac, who had been 
governor or regent of Beam some years previous. 



36 CHAPTER II, 

The cardinal forthwith wrote to the queen, ex- 
postulating with her on her adoption and mainte- 
nance of the f new opinions.' This letter and the 
reply which Jeanne d' Albret made to the mission- 
ary effort of the cardinal, merit consideration, 
both as affording a summary of the arguments 
adduced by the respective parties, in support of 
the Protestant and Romish faith, but still more 
as being illustrative of the mental character and 
spirit of the queen, who, as it is said, wrote her 
reply instantly, and returned it by the cardinal's 
courier. They will be given in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER III. 



LETTER FROM CARDINAL D ARMAGNAC TO THE 
QUEEN OF NAVARRE. THE QUEEN'S REPLY. 

The following is the letter addressed to the queen 
by the cardinal d' Armagnac* 
1 Madam, 
( The duty of the service in which I was born, 
and which I have continued faithfully to fulfil, 
both to the late sovereigns, your father and mother, 
as well as to the late king, your husband, has so 
complete an influence on my conduct, that I must 
ever be attentive to the means of sustaining your 
welfare and the glory of your illustrious house. 
Moved by the zeal which attaches me to your 
interests, I will never conceal from you whatever 
it is desirable that you should learn, and which I 
may have previously heard, trusting that you will 
receive, in good part, the representations of your 
long-tried, most attached and faithful servant, who 
will never offer to make them for his own private 



38 CHAPTER III. 

advantage, but solely for the sake of your con- 
science and the prosperity of your affairs. I can- 
not, then, Madam, conceal from you the deep 
affliction which penetrates me on account of the 
information I have received of the overthrow of 
images and altars, and the pillage of ornaments, 
silver, and jewels, committed in the cathedral of 
Lescar by the agents of your authority, as well as 
the severity of those agents to the chapter and 
people by the interdiction of divine service. This 
proceeding appears to me the more monstrous, 
since it took place in your presence, and resulted 
from evil counsels, which must lead to your ruin. 
It is in vain for you to conceive that you can trans- 
plant the new religion into your dominions at your 
pleasure. The wishes of the ministers who have 
assured you of this, are at variance with those of 
your subjects. They will never consent to leave 
their religion, as they already have declared by their 
protest at the last meeting of the estates of Beam. 
They will rather renounce the allegiance they owe 
to you, than that which they owe to God, and which 
their ancestors taught them to observe in the way 
adhered to by all Christendom. But, even sup- 
posing that they were reduced to accept your 
faith, consider what you would have to fear from 
the two sovereigns whose territories surround you, 
and who abhor nothing so much as the new opi- 



LETTER FROM CARDINAL D'ARMAGNAC. 39 

nions with which you are so delighted. Their 
policy would lead them to seize your dominions, 
rather than suffer them to become the prey of 
strangers. To shelter you from these dangers, 
you have not, like England, the ocean for a ram- 
part. Your conduct perils the fortunes of your 
children, and risks the beholding them deprived of 
a throne before they are entitled to occupy it. 
You will thus become worse than an infidel, by 
neglecting to provide for those of your own house. 
Such is the fruit of your Evangelism ; the cause 
alike of rebellion, of scandal and of sacrilege, which 
are common at this time, and are sanctioned by 
those whom you term teachers of the faith, but who 
are only apostates from it. You would indeed be 
excusable, if these men came to you in sheep's 
clothing and deceived you ; but they come openly 
as ravening wolves, using violence to kings and 
princes, to tear from them that liberty of conscience 
which they pretend to advocate. 

1 It was not thus that the early Christians acted. 
They were ready to suffer a thousand deaths, 
rather than cause the least scandal to their 
brethren. Instead of drawing the sword against 
their sovereign, they, on the contrary, bent their 
necks under the hand that struck them, showing 
this obedience even to idolatrous kings. Without 
entering into argument with you concerning the 



40 CHAPTER III. 

errors you follow, I would lead you to consider 
that those who support these errors cannot extri- 
cate themselves, since they read neither the 
Fathers of the Church or the Decrees of the 
ancient Councils. 1 Search their doctrine ; read it 
in St. Ignatius, St. Marcial, St. Denis, Tertullian, 
Irenaeus, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. Chrysos- 
tom and many others, and you will find it opposed 
to that which the new doctors teach. You will 
allege, I make no doubt, that you should rely on 
the Scriptures rather than the writings of men. 
But we differ in their interpretation, and, if you 
affirm that they are clear, you give the lie to St. 
Peter, who declares that there are in St. Paul's 
Epistles obscure passages which the ignorant wrest 
to their own destruction. The prince of darkness 
spreads obscurity over light itself. Can there be 

1 It is singular that the Oxford Tract writers (nominal Protes- 
tants) use the same argument, at the present day, against the 
adherents to the Articles of the Church of England. I find that 
Beam had its ' Puseyism ' and its ' Professor ' at this time. 
Jean de Serres (one of the ministers of Beam and subsequently 
Professor of Theology at Nismes) published two works (one in 
1577, 'Une exhortation pour la paix de l'Eglise;' and another 
in 1597, 'Apparatus ad fidem Catholicam, sive de principiis reli- 
gionis Christianae communi omnium consensu semper et ubique 
ratis,') in which similar opinions to those of the ' Oxford Tracts,' 
are maintained. The first was condemned by the Synod of San- 
mur, the second by that of Montpellier. 



LETTER FROM CARDINAL d'aRMAGNAC. 41 

clearer and more positive words than these of the 
Saviour, " this is my body ; " and yet, by the sub- 
tlety of your doctors, one finds the whole of 
Christendom divided and disputing as to their true 
meaning ; and, although every one would readily 
admit that these words are indicative of a literal 
meaning, still your ministers persist in considering 
them as merely figurative, assimilating them to the 
phrases, I am the door ; I am the true vine !" 

' But, even in arguing on the interpretation of 
Scripture, ought we not to look to ancient tradi- 
tion and the opinion of those who were both wit- 
nesses and interpreters of it ? And has not God, 
who worked so many miracles through them, mani- 
festly directed us to regard these holy personages 
rather than Luther and Calvin, Farel, Videl, and 
so many other presumptuous men, who would 
desire us to slight those reverend names and adopt 
their novelties ? Would they have us hold an open 
council to hear them, or unite in one common 
opinion against the Catholic church ? But that 
would be to expect unity in those who have the 
spirit of division, as is proved by the many sects 
into which their Reform is split. God permits 
this schism to manifest and point out which is the 
one and always existing church, according to his 
promise ; notwithstanding what your prophets 
declare respecting it, that it has been hid for 



42 CHAPTER III. 

twelve or thirteen hundred years under the dark- 
ness of idolatry, which, according to their absurd 
opinion, has covered it till the present period. It 
is astonishing that persons of good sense and who, 
like you, are endowed with the gifts of God, 
should allow themselves to be deceived by those 
who only labour to ruin souls. Many of the higher 
orders, who have been seduced thus like you, have 
become undeceived, and now regard those as dan- 
gerous heretics, who, for the purposes of imposition, 
had erected themselves into Reformers. In fol- 
lowing their example, you will imitate your ances* 
tors ; you will preserve the crown to the prince 
your son, and you will secure the safety of your 
soul, which can only find it in the Catholic 
church. 

* It is not through vanity that I thus become 
your adviser. The favours with which the deceased 
sovereigns, your father, your husband, and your 
mother honoured me, might entitle me to this 
privilege""; but the character of the Legate of the 
Holy See in Beam and Navarre, which you recog- 
nize in me, authorizes me to assume that office. 
The friendship which I bear you, through these 
great motives, moves me to beseech you with tears, 
to return into the great fold of Christians, and 
avoid the wolves who are pursuing you. • 

1 Without wasting time in farther reflections, let 



LETTER FROM CARDINAL D'ARMAGNAC. 43 

me intreat you to place in their former condition 
the churches of Lescar, of Pau, and other places 
which have been so deplorably desolated by you. 
This advice is preferable to that given you by your 
ministers, which it imports you to abandon, and if 
you neglect to follow it, I shall feel the deepest re- 
gret, under the apprehension that your conduct will 
entail the utmost misery, not only on yourself but 
others. If, however, you reject my counsel, I 
shall console myself for my want of success, by 
the assurance of having performed a good office, 
for your consideration, pursuant to my duty, and 
to the will of God our common father ; and I shall 
no further concern myself, than as a loyal and 
faithful servant would, at the anger of a sick mas- 
ter, whose state makes him heedless of the reme- 
dies which are presented to him for his cure. The 
assurance I have both of the rectitude of my con- 
science and my humble regard for you, leads me 
again to pray you to pay attention to my words, and 
to receive them as the most devoted homage it is 
in my power to offer you. With God's assistance, 
I shall beseech him, without ceasing, to grant you 
length of days and happiness, with his strength and 
blessing, trusting that you will pardon the prolix- 
ity of this letter, as it proceeds from the abundance 
of the heart, which has carried me into greater 
extent than I designed when it was commenced 



44 CHAPTER III. 

with the own hand of your most loyal and very 
obedient servant, 
(Signed) 

e The Cardinal d' Armagnac.' 
Viellepinte, August 18, 1563. 

It is scarcely necessary to point out the specious 
humility of this letter, or the total absence of spi- 
ritual sentiment or religious argument which it 
exhibits. By referring to the Fathers and the 
ancient Councils of the church, for the meaning of 
the inspired writers of the Holy Scriptures, the 
cardinal virtually designates the sacred penmen as 
incorrect and obscure in their style, and as second- 
ary and inferior to the uninspired authors, whom 
he refers to as clear and unerring guides. If the 
first generation of Christian instructors, who drew 
their facts and doctrines from their own know- 
ledge and the guiding influence of the Holy Spirit, 
cannot be trusted as safe teachers, much less, it 
might be argued, can those who wrote in succeed- 
ing generations, without that immediate know- 
ledge or inspiration : or if, on the contrary, the 
lapse of centuries increased the illuminating 
power of Christian expositors, then those who write 
latest must be admitted to be the safest guides, and 
consequently a Doddridge, a Henry, or a Scott, 
are names that should supersede those. of Ignatius, 



the queen's reply. 45 

Chrysostom, Irenaeus, or even Augustine. These 
observations it might seem irrelevant to make 
here, if by the rotation of time and the reproduc- 
tive nature of worldly matter, the contest between 
Protestantism and Romanism had not again com- 
menced : assertions are reiterated that have been 
formerly disproved, arguments reproduced that 
have been long since controverted. But the 
armour which St. Paul recommended to the Ephe- 
sians is still calculated for modern warfare, and 
God grant his people strength enough to use it. 

The queen of Navarre replied to the cardinal 
d'Armagnac, as follows : — 
* My Cousin, 

* From my earliest years I have been acquainted 
with the zeal which attached you to the service of 
my kindred. I am not authorized by ignorance 
of that zeal to refuse it the praise and the esteem 
it merits,, or to be prevented from feeling a grati- 
tude which I should be desirous to continue 
towards those who like you, having partaken of 
the favour of my family, have preserved good- 
will and fidelity towards it. I should trust you 
would still entertain those feelings towards me, as 
you profess to do, without allowing them to be 
changed or destroyed by the influence of I know 
not what religion or superstition; thanking you 



46 CHAPTER III. 

at the same time for the advice you give me, and 
which I receive according to its varied character, 
the dissimilar and mingled points it touches, being 
divided between heaven and earth, God and men ! 

6 As to the first point, concerning the reform 
which I have effected at Pau and at Lescar, and 
which I desire to extend throughout my sove- 
reignty, I have learned it from the Bible, which I 
read more willingly than the works of your doctors. 
I have there found, in the account of king Josias, 
a model by which I ought to regulate my conduct, 
in order that I may not draw on my myself the 
reproach cast on those kings of Israel, who pre- 
tended to serve the Lord while they allowed the 
high places to remain. 

1 As to the ruin impending over me, through 
bad counsel, under the colour of religion, I am not 
so devoid of the gifts of God, or of the aid of 
friends, as to be unable to make choice of persons 
worthy of my confidence and capable of acting, 
not under a vain pretence, but with the true spirit 
of religion. Such as is the head, so are the mem- 
bers. I have not undertaken to plant a new re- 
ligion in my dominions, but rather to rebuild the 
ruins of the ancient faith, which can only be re- 
garded as a good design, and which I trust will be 
successful. I clearly perceive that you have been 
misinformed, both respecting the answer of my 



the queen's reply. 47 

estates and the disposition of my subjects. The 
two estates have professed their obedience to re- 
ligion. The three first remonstrances were un- 
founded, but being satisfactorily answered, my 
subjects, ecclesiastics, nobles, and citizens, without 
exception, have vowed obedience, which is the 
safeguard against rebellion. I use no compulsion, 
nor punish with death or imprisonment, the expe- 
dients of arbitrary power. 

' I know who my neighbours are : the one hates 
my religion as much as I do his ; but that does not 
affect our mutual relations ; and, besides, I am not 
so destitute of advice and friends as to have neg- 
lected all necessary precautions for the defence of 
my rights, in case of attack. My other neighbour 
I regard as the stem of which I have the honour 
to be an offshoot. Far from abhorring my religion, 
he protects it in the persons of the nobles ; and of 
my son, who, like myself, is flattered by the 
honour which this connexion attaches to our house. 
Both modes of worship are recognized in his do- 
minions, nor is any one despised on account of his 
faith. But even supposing that it were so; allow- 
ing even that my subjects should desire to claim 
the aid of either of these princes; the one would 
hesitate to receive them, through the fear that, in 
offending me, he might irritate a superior power, 
that is to say, France, to whom, as you know, 



48 CHAPTER III. 

this country is of great importance ; while the 
other, far from being in my estimation, a tyrant or 
usurper, on the contrary, covers and protects me 
under the shadow of his wings, where I feel as- 
sured of safety. Although you think to intimi- 
date me, I am protected from all apprehension. 
First, by my confidence in God, whom I serve, 
and who knows how to defend his cause. Second- 
ly, because my tranquillity is not affected by the 
designs of those whom I can easily oppose, and 
because the effect of these designs will never be to 
weaken my spirit or turn aside the resolution I 
have taken, and which I will execute, with the 
grace of Him who encompasses my country, as the 
ocean does England! 

I do not perceive that I run the risk of sacri- 
ficing either my own welfare, or that of my son ; 
on the contrary, I trust to strengthen it in the 
only way which every Christian should pursue ; 
and even though the spirit of God might not 
inspire me with a knowledge of this way, yet 
human intellect would induce me to act as I do, 
from the many examples which I recal with 
regret, especially that of the late king, my hus- 
band, of whose history you well know the begin- 
ning, the course, and the end. "Where are the 
splendid crowns you held out to him ? Did he 
gain any by combatting against true religion and 



the queen's reply. 49 

his conscience ? Yes, his conscience, as witness 
his last words addressed to the queen, declaring 
that he would cause the reformed ministers to 
preach throughout his territories, if he should be 
cured of his wound. 1 Mark the fruit of the gos- 
pel, which divine mercy causes to be gathered in 
its time and place. See the care of the eternal 
Father, who remembers those upon whom his 
name is called.' 

I blush with shame when you talk of the many 
atrocities which you allege to have been committed 
by those of our faith : cast out the beam out of 
thine own eye, and thou shalt then see clearly the 
mote in thy brother's eye : purify the earth that 
is stained with the innocent blood which those of 
your party have shed, a fact you can bear testi- 
mony to ; and I well know whence sprung the first 
disturbances, when the ministers of the gospel 
preaching every where under the sanction of the 
edict of tolerance issued in January 1559, you and 
the Cardinal de Tournon, injured the character of 
the late king, my husband, by inducing him to 

1 Unquestionably Jeanne must have been well informed of the 
particulars of her husband's death. De Thou affirms the fact as 
stated here, but Mezeray says, that Anthony died irresolute, as he 
had lived. Olligarray (a Protestant) is silent on the point. The 
' last words ' were sadly contradicted by the last actions of An- 
thony of Bourbon, and were at best only expressive of a provi- 
sional resolution. " The Queen " was Catharine de Medicis, 
D 



50 CHAPTER Iir. 

interrupt their efforts ? I am far, however, from 
approving here the excesses committed in many 
places under the name of religion, and which 
our ministers deplore equally with all men of rec- 
titude. My voice calls loudly for vengeance 
against their authors, who have profaned the true 
faith ; by the grace of God, the disgrace of these 
disorders shall be effaced from Beam, which will 
be saved from this ruin, as well as all others with 
which it is threatened. 

You are ignorant of what our ministers are, who 
preach patience, obedience to sovereigns, and the 
other virtues of which the apostles and the mar- 
tyrs have left them an example. You will not 
dispute, you observe, about our doctrine : nor will 
I, although its truth is so manifest, that it is vain 
for you to call it false. It is not through mistrust 
of my cause that I refrain, but from the fear of 
making useless efforts to conduct you to the hill 
of Sion. You affirm that multitudes draw back 
from our belief, while I maintain that the number 
of its adherents increases daily. As to ancient 
authorities, I hear them every day cited by our 
ministers. I am not, indeed, sufficiently learned 
to have gone through so many works, but neither, 
I suspect, have you, nor are better versed in them 
than myself, as you were always known to be 
more acquainted with matters of state than those 



THE QUEEN'S REPLY. 51 

of the church. You do wrong to blame us for 
having quitted the ancient faith. Take that blame 
to yourself, (' prenez vous par le vez,') you who 
have rejected the milk with which you nourished 
my mother, before the honours of Rome had fasci- 
nated your eyes. 

We are agreed on the reading the Scriptures, 
without looking farther. We acknowledge that 
there are difficult passages ; your corruptions, 
which have rendered them so, have eaten like a 
canker. It is also too true, that the spirit of 
darkness blinds men ; you and others have been 
examples of it. I have learned in our religion, 
that St. Augustine, (versus Adamantus,) had well 
explained these words, ' This is my body,' in 
saying that Jesus Christ spoke of his own body, 
while he gave the sign of it. This explanation is 
a better elucidation than that which you give of 
the passage, where the Saviour said, that he 
would speak no longer in parables, since, then, the 
supper had been finished. Read again these pas- 
sages attentively, before you explain them so un- 
happily on any other occasion ; it might be par- 
donable in me as a female, but you, a cardinal, to 
be so old and yet so ignorant ! Truly, my cousin, 
I feel shame for you ! 

You affect to repeat often, my doctors, my min- 
isters. Would to God they were mine, and that 
d 2 



'52 CHAPTER III. 

I was enriched with so great a treasure. I would 
say with St. Paul, I am not ashamed of the gos- 
pel. But do not however believe, that I consider 
them infallible. I place no reliance on doctors, 
not even Calvin, Beza, and others, but as they 
follow Scripture. You would send them to a 
council. They desire it, provided that it shall be a 
free one, and that the parties should not be judges. 
The motive of the surety they require, is founded on 
the examples of John Huss and Jerome of Prague. 

There are not many sects among our ministers, 
but rather amongst you, as I learned at Poissy. 1 
We have one Grod, one faith, one church, which 
he has promised to govern until the end of the 
world. As to the morals and manners of our min- 
isters, are you of opinion that they should go to 
Rome to learn better ? You make them declare 
that the church has lain hid for twelve or thirteen 
hundred years. They said nothing like it, for 
they acknowledge an universal church, where it 
has been always existing, but not with you whom 
they deny to be the true church. They carry no 
farther a decision on the fate of those who pre- 
ceded you in the same belief, leaving all to the 
secret judgment of God. False assertions should 
not be made, when one wishes to be believed. 

1 The Conference between the Protestants and Romanists held 
at Poissy near St. Germain en Laye in 1560. 



the queen's reply. 53 

I am equally astonished with you, that persons 
of good sense should be misled, and if you lose 
patience at it, I, who have much less than you, 
only view it in the same light. 

Nothing afflicts me more than that you, after 
having received the truth, should have abandoned 
it for idolatry,- because you there found the ad- 
vancement of your fortune and worldly honours. 
I believe that if you are not guilty of the sin 
against the Holy Ghost, you are very nearly so. 
Hasten, I intreat you, to pray, for fear that the 
door of mercy may be shut against you. I must 
stop here, practising obedience to what God com- 
mands — " be ye angry and sin not." 

If it is true, as you say, that the followers of 
the faith have become persecutors, keep those titles 
for yourself which the Holy Spirit ascribes to you. 
When you call our ministers disturbers, it seems 
to me that I hear Ahab addressing Elijah, but the 
prophet answered — " I have not troubled Israel, 
but thou and thy Father's house, in that ye have 
forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and 
hast followed Baalim." Have you no shame in 
inducing me to take a part, only sustained by those 
who league against their sovereign and God ; so 
that far from thus gaining a title to my esteem, 
you hazard having to repent of your own 
attempts. 



54 CHAPTER III. 

I understand, better than you do, how to act 
towards the princes, my allies, and to my son, 
who belongs to that church, out of which there is 
no salvation, and in which I feel assured of my 
own safety. 

You beg me not to consider it strange or wrong 
that you have thus addressed me, since you act as 
legate of the pope ; but I will not receive one at 
the same price which France has paid, who has 
had to repent of the bargain. I acknowledge 
God, as the only being to whom, in Beam, I am 
responsible for the exercise of my authority ; I 
have not withdrawn from the Catholic church, nor 
adopted any error contrary to its creed. Keep, 
therefore, your tears to mourn your own danger, 
to which I will readily contribute mine, to shew 
my charity, if they can serve to draw you into the 
true fold of Christianity and tend to make you a 
shepherd instead of a hireling. 

If you have no better reasons for combating 
my undertaking, do not again urge me to follow 
your worldly prudence ; I consider it mere folly 
before God ; it cannot impede my endeavours. 
Your doubts makes me tremble ; my assurance 
makes me firm. When you desire again to per- 
suade me, that the words of your mouth are the 
voice of your conscience and your faithfulness, be 
more careful, and let the fruitless letter you have 



the queen's reply. 55 

sent me be the last of that kind that I shall re- 
ceive. I have seen the letter that you wrote to 
my cousin of Lescar, 1 and which he will answer : 
it is equally malignant and prejudiced. It is 
sufficient for me to observe that you would hurl 
upon the country of Beam, the misery into which 
you have plunged France. But though you may 
envy her prosperity, the Arbiter of her destinies 
will preserve it, notwithstanding your malicious 
intrigues ; and, by his grace, will confirm it. May 
that grace abound towards you in the pardon of 
your sins ! Yet I almost dread to beseech Him 
for it, lest He may address to me the reproach 
which Samuel met with on account of Saul. 2 

Receive this from one who knows not how to 
style herself ; not being able to call herself a 
friend, and doubtful of any affinity till the time of 
repentance and conversion, when she will be 
Your cousin and friend, 

Jeanne.' 

This most characteristic letter fully depicts the 
mind, heart, and temper of Jeanne d'Albret. 
Acute and sarcastic ; ardent and devoted ; irrita- 

1 Louis d'Albret, Bishop of Lescar, and guardian of prince 
Henry of Navarre. He was a ' laissez aller ' character. 

2 1 Samuel xvi. 1. "And the Lord said unto Samuel, How 
long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him." 



56 CHAPTER III. 

ble and daring. How firm and deeply felt must 
have been the conviction which her faith produced ! 
Her petty domain entirely encircled by the power- 
ful sovereignties, ruled by the atrocious patron of 
the butchery of St. Bartholomew's, and the 
bigotted husband of our Smithfield Mary ! Her 
throne, was, as it were, on a sandy shelf, sur- 
rounded by the waves, beyond the reach of the 
fellow monarchs of her faith ! Her nobles, her 
dignified clergy, nay, her state advisers, for the 
most part, openly or secretly, opposed to her de- 
sign ! And yet, with what assured, determined, 
and sagacious energy, did she maintain her holy 
cause ; advancing the standard of her faith with a 
resolute arm, while she exclaimed, like her royal 
prototype, — " The Lord is on my side ; I will not 
fear what man can do unto me ! " 



CHAPTER IV. 



DIFFICULTIES OF THE QUEEN. THE ROMANISTS 

TRIUMPHANT. 

A few weeks after the queen of Navarre had so 
decidedly evinced her determination to adhere to 
the Reformed doctrines, the thunder of the Vati- 
can was brought to bear upon her. A citation 
from the pope was issued, September 28, 1563, 
and, notwithstanding an intercessory remonstrance 
from the court of France, was duly followed by 
excommunication, the declared forfeiture of her 
crown, and the absolution of her subjects from 
their oaths of allegiance. But Jeanne had 
secured her authority by prompt and well-com- 
bined measures, and the great body of her people 
were now too well acquainted with the errors of 
Romanism, to be led into rebellion by the anti- 
christian mandate. 

In the February previous, an ecclesiastical coun- 
cil had been established, by which conventual 

D 5 



58 CHAPTER IV. 

bodies were dissolved, and their property em- 
ployed in the foundation of schools and charitable 
institutions. The symbols of Romanism, crosses, 
images, and altars, were removed, and the churches 
supplied with Reformed pastors. These changes 
were effected without much difficulty ; the re- 
sistance made by the Romish priests not being 
supported by the people. A few imprisonments took 
place, of those contumaciously resisting, but in every 
instance, the queen almost immediately remitted 
the punishment. It is true that the estates of the 
kingdom warmly discussed the question of these 
changes, but the utmost opposition that resulted, 
was an address for liberty of conscience. The 
queen immediately issued an edict to that effect, 
arresting the progress of her ecclesiastical com- 
missaries in ' dismantling ' the Roman edifices, 
and ordering the statu quo to be maintained. But 
the Romanists were interdicted from restoring 
their worship in the churches then in possession 
of the Protestants, or of extending their ecclesias- 
tical influence. 

This concession was a very slight one, for the 
officers of the ecclesiastical council had already 
passed through the land and effected their changes 
very generally. The higher order of the Roman 
clergy, and the nobles, formed the great majority 
of the estates, and yet, after fifteen days debate, 



DIFFICULTIES OF THE QUEEN. 59 

no stronger resolution was passed than that which 
induced this concession ; so that neither the cause 
or the effect of it evinced any serious tendency to 
weaken the advance of reform. 

A transient peace, or rather truce, between the 
Huguenots and the Romanists of France left the 
queen a period of leisure for her domestic govern- 
ment. In the regulation of this, she was ably and 
faithfully supported by the Count de Grammont, 
the head of a family long distinguished for its 
ability and devotedness to the house of Navarre. 
The expulsion of the monastic orders was followed 
by the establishment of colleges. The convents 
of the Jacobins and Dominicans at Orthez con- 
tained no less than two hundred and thirty of these 
useless drones, who were superseded by busy 
youths and instructors of the reformed faith. So 
unpopular were the monks, that they petitioned, 
when removing, for a military guard, to save them 
from insult. The golden chalices, censers, &c. 
used in public worship, by the self-called descen- 
dants and followers of the apostolic fishermen, 
were publicly sold, and the proceeds employed in 
the formation of public works. It is obvious that 
Romanism had lost its hold on popular feeling ; in 
most instances a quiet sufferance, in some a joyous 
tumult, accompanied these public strippings of the 
" purple and scarlet, gold and precious stones." 



60 CHAPTER IV. 

The spirit of Erasmus, rather than that of Calvin, 
seemed prevalent with many. At Pau, the 
municipal body, being petitioned by the priests of 
the town, not to dispose of certain property 
granted to their church for masses for the dead, 
replied that the ' dead having no need of support, 
the funds would be expended in maintaining living 
soldiers.' Again, the same body replied to a re- 
quest to be allowed tapers during the Roman ser- 
vice, that ' when the days were dark or cloudy, 
they might light the tapers.' 

But internal peace was soon broken, through 
the excitement caused by the resumption of the 
civil contest in Franee. The lull in the storm 
seems only to have led to its increased force. The 
Romanists struggled as for a last effort ; the Pro- 
testants with the vigour of their youthful state. 

At Thoulouse, the Romanist population rose on 
the Reformed, who defended themselves bravely, 
but sought to treat with their adversaries. This 
was refused, and the Protestants in the end were 
driven from the city, all their property seized, and 
three thousand five hundred of them put to the 
sword. At Limoux, where the Protestants were 
the strongest party, they suffered from treason. 
Their minister was massacred, with many others, 
and their goods confiscated. At Foix, similar 
scenes and results ensued. The Protestants were 



DIFFICULTIES OF THE QUEEN. 61 

the chief part of the population, and, on the out- 
break of the religious contest, occupied the castle. 
M, de Pailles, the governor of the town, promised 
them protection. They listened to the deceit, 
opened their defences in a feeling of assurance, 
and were ruined. The Protestant minister, Anto- 
ine Caffer, saved himself in the disguise of a shep- 
herd, but Pailles inflicted the most atrocious 
cruelties on many of those who had credulously 
fancied that faith would be kept with heretics. At 
Castries, the Protestants successfully resisted their 
enemies, and burnt the bishop's palace. These 
places were in the French territory, or on its im- 
mediate frontier, and the Romanist aggressors 
were excited or conducted by the king's autho- 
rities ; but in the Navarrese domain the excite- 
ment was chiefly on the side of the Protestants ; 
who were roused by the flight of the refugees into 
the Bearnoise territory, and their pitiable detail of 
sufferings. Though the outward demonstration of 
hostile feeling was not so strong in Beam, it was not 
less deep in the breasts of the Romish party. Open 
violence would have been unavailing on their part ; 
recourse was, therefore, had to dark and secret 
proceedings. The Romish clergy engaged in this, 
as more suitable to them than the clash of wea- 
pons in the field. The Abbe de Sauvelade was 
the ' Apostolic ' leader, and enlisting several of the 



62 CHAPTER IV. 

displaced canons of Lescar and Oloron, with the 
Baron de Navailles and other Romish nobles, 
planned the course to be followed for restoring 
their faith in Beam. They took steps for seizing 
the persons of Jeanne d'Albret and her children, 
and hurrying them through the passes of the 
Pyrennees into Spain. On the same day, Whit- 
sunday 1566, the conspirators at the head of the 
Romish population were to rise on their Pro- 
testant neighbours while engaged at divine service, 
and put all to the sword. But providence saved 
Beam from the stain which the commission of this 
crime would have left on its history. A subordi- 
nate agent of the plot communicated its know- 
ledge to his medical attendant, and by the latter 
it was carried to the queen. The detection of the 
conspiracy was considered by Jeanne as a suf- 
ficient punishment for its baffled agents ; and, 
though Sauvelade, for a subsequent act of rebel- 
lion, was imprisoned, yet even with this added 
guilt, he was pardoned. 

Lenity is only appreciated by noble minds, and 
the gloomy bigotry of superstition seems to con- 
sider that it is a crime to waste the better feelings 
of our nature on those who lie beyond its own 
dark confines. A Protestant, to the mind and 
feeling of a Romanist, is but a promethean man, 
not a fellow creature. 



DIFFICULTIES OF THE QUEEN. 63 

The personal immunity of offenders gave en- 
couragement to those who were discontented with 
the queen's measures. Punishment was due to 
them, but they liberally threw in a gratuitous 
rebellion. 

The prince of Conde and M. Chatillon, had re- 
newed the civil contest in France, and called on 
the queen of Navarre, as a Protestant sovereign, 
to give aid to their cause. A body of her troops 
crossed the Garonne under the command of M. 
Caumont, for the camp of Conde, in October 1568. 

The opportunity which the absence of an armed 
force gave, was not neglected by the Romanist 
leaders. The Count de Luxe, who held a Seignory 
in the district of Mauleon, in the north-west part 
of Beam, raised his tenantry, and seducing a small 
corps of men at arms, of which he held the com- 
mand, from their allegiance to the queen, attacked 
and gained possession of Garris, about forty miles 
from Pau, and the only fortified place in that part 
of the country. The young prince of Navarre, 
then in his fifteenth year, proceeded against the 
the rebels, who, on an assurance of being allowed 
the free exercise of their religion, submitted, but 
three of the leaders of the movement were ex- 
cepted from the amnesty, and suffered death. 

The body of troops under the Viscount Cau- 
mont, which had marched from Beam to join the 



64 CHAPTER IV. 

Prince de Conde, hearing of this outbreak, fell 
upon the town of Bolbonne in their route to Mon- 
tauban, and destroyed the monastery there. The 
system of reprisals recommenced. A number of 
Protestants who had assembled with a minister, 
M. Martin Tachard, (a preacher of great emi- 
nence,) at the village of Cabannes, was surprised 
in the night by a party of Montlucq's troops. 
Tachard was carried a prisoner to Thoulouse, 
into which town he was led with a number of 
paternosters, pasted on boards, hung round his 
neck, and subjected to derision and insult. When 
summoned before the tribunal that was appointed 
to examine him, he knelt down and prayed pub- 
licly to God, in terms suitable to his situation, 
then rising up, he solemnly warned his judges 
that they would suffer the just anger of their God, 
if they failed to act towards him in truth and sin- 
cerity. Notwithstanding this solemn warning, 
Tachard was condemned to be hung, and was 
drawn through the streets to the gallows, singing 
the 122nd Psalm. As a further indignity, his 
body was left hanging for two days. At Reolle, 
Montlucq hung eighty Protestants to the beams 
of the market-house. At Monsegur, which he 
took by storm, the Protestant population were 
put to the sword, and twenty fugitives having been 
subsequently found secreted in houses, were also 



DIFFICULTIES OF THE QUEEN. 65 

ordered by him to be hung. That the Protestant 
troops should have retaliated, (though not with 
the same barbarous atrocity,) cannot excite asto- 
nishment. 

The civil war in France was of short duration. 
It commenced in September 1567, and peace was 
signed on the 23d of March following. The 
Bearnaise revolters, thus losing the support they 
counted on, were easily induced to submit to the 
queen of Navarre, who, when the Count de Luxe 
and his associates knelt before her at her Chateau 
de Pau, addressed them to this purport : ' That 
the overruling providence of God, which works in 
all things for his honour and glory, having pre- 
served her hitherto, she was thereby taught to 
show equal mercy to others, and in so doing, she 
desired to efface the memory of their misdeeds. 
On the assurance of their amendment, she forgave 
the past, trusting that her clemency would pro- 
duce worthy fruit in the future.' 

Such was the benign character of this most 
Christian queen ! Such was the language of the 
first Protestant authority in France, only five 
years before the massacre of St. Bartholomew's. 
But " even so ; every good tree bringeth forth 
good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil 
fruit," 

Charles the Ninth, the French king, was at 



66 CHAPTER IV, 

that period engaged with his spiritual advisers, in 
the preparation of the means for the general 
slaughter of the Protestants, which was soon after 
perpetrated. Jeanne d'Albret being " a stone of 
stumbling and a rock of offence " to the extirpa- 
tors of " heresy," was accordingly marked out for 
immolation. 

M. de la Mothe Fenelon was, therefore, de- 
spatched on an embassy to the Navarrese queen, 
under the ostensible character of arbitrator between 
the queen and her revolted subjects ; but at the 
same time, to save the trouble and expense of a 
second mission, he was the bearer of a commission 
from the king of France to the count de Luxe, 
empowering him to levy troops for the support of 
the Romanist cause, in anticipation of the renewal 
of the civil war. In a few months after, the war 
was resumed, and by the provident prudence of 
the king of France, de Luxe was immediately in 
the field against his sovereign the queen of Na- 
varre. Jeanne took steps to defend herself. To 
defray her expences, all the Romanist convents, 
oratories, and extra-parochial chapels were sold, 
as well as the remaining ornaments of value in the 
churches. The estates of her kingdom, also, not- 
withstanding their former remonstrances, gave her 
a subsidy of twelve thousand crowns. Jeanne at 
the same time wrote to our queen, Elizabeth of 



DIFFICULTIES OF THE QUEEN. 67 

England, detailing her situation and danger, and 
entreating the aid of that great Protestant prin- 
cess. The appeal of her suffering sister was 
readily listened to by Elizabeth, who sent Jeanne 
the sum of 100,000 angels, (£50,000.) and six 
pieces of cannon with all their furniture. With 
these resources troops were speedily arrayed, at 
the head of a part of which, Jeanne set out for 
Rochelle, where the prince of Conde, and the 
heads of the Protestant party were assembled; 
leaving the government of her territories to her 
lieutenant-general, the baron d'Arros, and the 
president of her council, M. de Salettes. It is 
probable, as the Protestant historians conjecture, 
that the queen left Beam, with her son and 
daughter, for the greater security which the Hu- 
guenot army afforded, and, possibly, on account 
of the distrust which the revolt of her subjects had 
engendered. But the estates and people of Beam 
testified the utmost loyalty to their sovereign, 
levying forces, and raising money for her service. 
The estates also despatched two commissioners to 
the queen, one a Protestant, the other a Romanist, 
to assure her of their fidelity and adherence, 

The national feeling of the Bearnoise had been 
roused by the proclamation issued by Charles the 
Ninth of France, on the breaking out of the war 
against the queen of Navarre. In this proclama- 



68 CHAPTER IV. 

tion, the king declared the territories of the queen 
to be forfeited, and announced his design to occupy 
them. The appointment of de Luxe (a pardoned 
rebel,) to act as his lieutenant in the queen's 
dominion, was not a measure calculated to draw 
any honourable man to his standard ; and, pos- 
sibly, for this reason, he was superseded in his 
command, and the leading of the revolt in Beam 
and Navarre, entrusted to Antoine de Lomagne, 
viscount de Terride. 

The state of the country at this time was 
lamentable. Each one took the side which opi- 
nion, interest, or connection led to. Dandaux, 
formerly so active in the service of the queen, 
forsook her for the French party, and became her 
active enemy. But the Baron d'Arros, the queen's 
Lieutenant, was indefatigable in his exertions to 
sustain her cause. With the forces he had raised 
he invested Oloron, of which the Romanists had 
gained possession. D'Arros had taken prisoner 
M. Desgarrabaque, who commanded the town, 
together with several of the chief of his party, and 
thinking to terrify the garrison into a surrender, 
sent a notice to the besieged, that he would put 
his prisoners to death if they did not yield the 
town. The son of Desgarrabaque commanded as 
his father's deputy, but firm in his military feeling, 
only answered by firing on D'Arros. The baron 



DIFFICULTIES OF THE QUEEN. 69 

impetuously assaulted the town, but was routed 
with considerable loss. A proposition was subse- 
quently made to Arros, to give up Oloron on his 
releasing his prisoners. It was accepted, but the 
prisoners being given up with too little precaution, 
the party in Oloron refused to surrender. 

This check lured many of the Romanist waver- 
ers to throw off their neutral disguise, and come 
forth in arms against the queen. Many of her 
former councillors and commanders espoused the 
anti-protestant side. Town after town fell into 
their hands ; those places that resisted (such as 
Nay) being subjected to fire and sword and the 
most barbarous cruelty. The threat of inflicting 
similar atrocities on all who resisted, was sufficient 
to induce a surrender, for Arros had no means of 
affording aid. 

While the revolted barons were thus extending 
the rebellion on all sides, the Viscount de Terride, 
at the head of a body of French troops, entered 
Beam. The episcopal towns of Oloron and Lescar 
were speedily subdued, the troops burning and 
ravaging the houses of the Protestants, who were 
hung and shot without mercy. The cruelties to 
which those of the Reformed faith were exposed 
were most revolting. The small town of Bellocq, 
on the frontier, being almost exclusively Protest- 
ant, the whole population fled on the approach of 



70 CHAPTER IV. 

their enemies, only five Romanist inhabitants 
remaining, and an old infirm Protestant. This 
wretched individual was immolated, a victim to 
bigotry and disappointed vengeance. Orthez sur- 
rendered on the express stipulation of personal 
security to the Reformed. The promise was 
readily given and religiously kept by the Roman- 
ists, for in that sense they speedily ensured " a 
rest for the people of God." 

Pau, the capital of Beam, being soon after sub- 
dued, the same atrocities attended the resumption 
of the Roman sway. An elm near the market- 
place is still shewn, where the Protestant preach- 
ers and officers were suspended, and from whence 
having hung sufficiently long in the sight of the 
people, their bodies were taken and cast into the 
adjacent river. 

Terride being now in possession of the greater 
part of the queen of Navarre's dominions, issued 
a decree, in Easter 1569, for the restoration of the 
Romish worship. The images were set up in their 
" high places ; " the monks took possession again 
of their dormitories, and the smoke of burnt herbs 
ascended in the churches instead of " the Chris- 
tian's vital breath, the contrite sinner's voice." 

In how short a time had the spoiler destroyed 
the fair scenery of our Christian queen. The 
sprouting herb, the branching tendrils were 



DIFFICULTIES OF THE QUEEN. 71 

withered — but the root was still in the dry 
ground. 

Amidst all this devastation of her cherished 
land, and the added defeat of the French Huguenots 
at the battle of Jarnac, Jeanne preserved her hope 
and spirit. She harangued the vanquished troops 
of her party, who were dispirited by the death of 
the prince of Conde ; placed her son at their head ; 
w T rote again to queen Elizabeth of England for 
assistance, which was again afforded, and despatch- 
ed a letter to the Jurats of Navarre informing 
them that speedy succour would be sent. But 
the Jurats were now Romanists, and the letter, 
instead of being published to the country, was 
placed in the hands of Terride. 

One town only, and that the principal place of 
strength, Navarrenx, remained faithful to the 
queen. It was indeed a city of refuge. Arros, 
and all the chiefs of the queen's party were assem- 
bled within its walls. The remains of the regular 
troops were its garrison, besides a crowd of fugi- 
tives whom the atrocities of the Romanists had 
driven from their homes. So strong was the 
bigotted feeling that actuated the conquerors, that 
even those of their faith who had assisted the 
Protestants, as mere employed workmen, in pre- 
paring the churches for the reformed worship, 
were subjected to persecution. Terride published 



72 CHAPTER IV. 

another ordonnance, entirely prohibiting the Re- 
formed worship under pain of death ; all persons 
were enjoined to attend mass, and to bear crosses 
from their necks as signs of their faith. Death 
or apostacy being thus offered to the surviving 
Protestants, many fled to Navarrenx, in which 
place were now enclosed the remaining strength 
of the Protestants of Beam. This town, there- 
fore, Terride determined to assail, and in the 
middle of April 1569, having assembled an army 
composed of six thousand Navarrese revolters 
under de Luxe, four thousand French under St. 
Colombe, two thousand Bearnoise foot, and twelve 
squadrons of cavalry under St. Salvi, his brother, 
he set forth for Navarrenx to offer up a final holo- 
caust of heretics, and to complete his conquests. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE SIEGE OF NAVARRENX. THE COUNT DE 
MONTGOMERY. ROUT OF THE ROMANISTS. 

NAVARRENx(or, according to modern orthography, 
Navarreins) is a small town nearly in the centre 
of the Department of the Lower Pyrennees ; but, 
in those days, forming a barrier on the western 
frontier of Beam. It had been fortified, accord- 
ing to the science of the time, by Henry II. of 
Navarre, as a defence against the Spaniards ; but, 
situated as it was, in a sandy district, on the banks 
of an unnavigable river (the Gave d'Oloron) it 
possessed no other advantages than its battlements. 
Within the narrow circuit of these were assembled 
the best of the chivalry of Navarre, and a crowd of 
refugees who had sought a shelter, and who, 
banded together in a common interest of defence, 
aided the slender garrison, of only four hundred 
men, in their military duties. 

On the 27th of April, 1569, the viscount de 

E 



7i CHAPTER V. 

Terride appeared before the town and summoned 
it to surrender. M. de Bassillon was the Governor, 
a man deficient in judgment and military skill ; 
but the queen's lieutenant, the baron d'Arros, 
assumed the direction of affairs, aided by the^ 
numerous leaders of the Protestant party who had 
joined him. The summons was indignantly re- 
pelled. Terride (who had, evidently, expected 
that the town would have speedily capitulated at 
the sight of the formidable array he had brought 
against it, especially considering the hopelessness 
of the cause and of aid for its maintenance) found 
it necessary to send to Orthez for artillery. In 
the mean time he surrounded the town with his 
troops, cut off its communication with the river, 
and effected a close blockade. But he did not 
trust solely to external effort ; he had Romanist 
friends within the town, and these formed a plan 
for blowing up the magazine, and in the confusion 
admitting Terride. The trains were laid, and the 
whole design securely arranged for execution, but 
on the very eve of its accomplishment, two children 
who were playing about, discovered the train, and 
their artless wonder caused the plot, thus provi- 
dentially, to come to the knowledge of the garrison. 
On the same day (2nd of May) to shew their spirit 
and indignation, the besieged made a successful 
sortie against the enemy. The next day M. de 



THE SIEGE OF NAVARRENX. 75 

Lons arrived, from the queen, with news that a 
force under the count de Montgomery, was assem- 
bling on the right bank of the Garonne for their 
succour. 

On the 24th of May the long-expected and 
dreaded artillery was received by Terriole. This 
boasted aid consisted of four cannon of the kind 
called " lombards" (or battering pieces of no great 
calibre) with which he commenced firing into the 
town at five hundred paces from the walls. At 
the first fire, the whole population of the town 
are said to have been seized with a panic ; to have 
rushed out of the houses, as if an earthquake had 
occurred, and to have been, with difficulty, 
deterred from bursting the gates for flight. Hap- 
pily Terride was either ignorant of or possibly 
alarmed at the commotion, and did not avail him- 
self of the panic. The people of Navarrenx soon 
became habituated to the noisy engines, 1 which 
after all, it would appear, were little to be dreaded, 
probably from the inexpertness of those directing 
them ; for it is recorded that during the seventy- 
seven days they were before the town, the cannon 
threw into it one thousand seven hundred and 
seventy shot, while the total loss of life, amongst 

1 It would seem from this panic (something like that of the 
South-Sea Islanders on first hearing a cannonade) and from other 
circumstances, that Navarrenx was unprovided with artillery. 
E 2 



76 CHAPTER V. 

the besieged, from casualties of war, was only 
thirty-four men. 

On the 27th of May, Terride assaulted the 
town on the side of the bridge, in which failing, he 
attempted'to burn the bridge, but was driven back, 
and the besieged regained possession of the river, 
from the loss of which they had suffered much. 
This success, and the cheering prospect of succour, 
raised the spirits of the pent-up Protestants, who, 
on the 29th, testified their feelings, by assembling 
together and reverently receiving the sacrament of 
the Lord's Supper. During this solemn meeting, 
the enemy fiercely cannonaded the town, but their 
ears were now accustomed to the sound, and their 
hearts were firmer, being strengthened by the 
exercise of devotion. 

The Romanist inhabitants were not idle, while 
their Protestant neighbours were devoting them- 
selves to Grod. They were actively engaged in 
another plot to give up the town to Terride, but 
Providence again interposed and allowed it to be 
discovered in time for its prevention. 

The next morning (the 30th) the besieged made 
another successful sortie, and also another a few 
days after, of which much booty, provisions, and 
a few prisoners were the result. 

At that period the service of troops, or retainers 
in the field, was seldom other than expeditionary, 



THE SIEGE OF NAVARRENX. 77 

for some specified object or time. No commissariat 
existed, the maintenance of troops depending 
solely on themselves, and the opportunities afforded 
for supply. When, therefore, a body of men had, 
locust-like, exhausted the supplies of the district 
they were in, it became necessary to move to 
another. 

Terride had now lost eight hundred men in 
combat; the remainder were daily deserting his 
standard; discontent was general, yet no one 
ventured to speak of abandoning the enterprise. 
At last Terride himself began to hesitate, espe- 
cially as news arrived that a body of the queen's 
forces, formed by the coalition of several detached 
parties in Guienne, were advancing to relieve 
Navarrenx. The joy in the town was great, while 
those before the walls suspended the fight as if 
preparing to retreat. But the queen's forces, oil 
arriving at Mont-de-Marsan, within a few days 
march of Navarrenx, were met by the French 
troops and defeated. Tho siege was again resum- 
ed with vigour by Terride, while the unhappy Pro- 
testants in Navarrenx lost all hope. Yet, notwith- 
standing this hopeless situation, and the extremity 
to which the town was reduced for want of provi- 
sions, a capitulation was not thought of. Every 
one knew the fate that awaited him if Terride, either 
by force or treaty, gained possession of the town. 



78 CHAPTER V. 

But Providence had not forsaken the little band. 
Their expectation of succour had been disap- 
pointed, by the defeat of the Bearnaise corps, who 
had endeavoured to aid their brethren ; but Mont- 
gomery, whom the queen had selected for the 
relief of her people, was still strengthening him- 
self for that object. 

Gabriel, Count de Montgomery, was the grand- 
son of Robert Montgomery, a native of Scotland, 
who had emigrated to France at the beginning of 
the reign of Francis I. His son, James, acquired 
great distinction as a warrior, being mentioned by 
historians as M. de Lorge, the name of his estate, 
though he subsequently became Count de Mont- 
gomery. Gabriel de Lorge, Count de Montgomery, 
the eldest son of James, inherited the gallantry 
and spirit of his father. He was one of the most 
distinguished nobles of the court, being selected 
to head the auxiliaries sent by France to the as- 
sistance of Mary Stuart in Scotland. In the 
tournament held on the 30th of June 1559, 
on occasion of the marriages of the sister and 
daughter of Henry II. of France ; Montgomery, 
who was forced into personal contest with the 
king, had the misfortune to inflict a wound, of 
which Henry died ten days after. In consequence 
of this unhappy accident, Montgomery quitted 
France, and travelled in Italy and England till 



THE SIEGE OF NAVARRENX. 79 

1562; when the civil wars respecting religion 
commenced. His mind had become seriously im- 
pressed with religious truth, and the gay courtier 
was now a devoted Protestant, in defence of which 
faith, he returned to France. The eminent ser- 
vices which he rendered to the Huguenot cause, 
induced the queen of Navarre, to select him for 
the important duty of saving her dominions, (now 
nearly entirely in the power of her enemies,) from 
total ruin. 

' Montgomery left the Huguenot camp at Chalus, 
in the Angoumois, with a small body of trusty 
followers. He had to pass through a tract of 
country guarded by the French king's forces. 
From Bordeaux to Thoulouse, the right bank of 
the Garonne was watched vigilantly by the enemy's 
posts ; Monlucq commanding in the one city, 
Marshal d' Anville in the other. But Montgomery, 
by frequent manoeuvres and counter-marches, be- 
tween, the two head-quarters, which he effected as 
well to deceive his enemies, as to favour the junc- 
tion of his Protestant partizans, so completely 
confused the two generals, that he passed the 
Garonne without opposition ; and in the begin- 
ning of August entered Beam with two thousand 
five hundred foot, and five hundred horse. 

Terride had continued before the town of 
Navarrenx, having full confidence in the ability 



80 CHAPTER V. 

of Monlucq and d'Anville, to repel Montgomery ; 
but the latter had arrived within a day's march 
of Navarrenx, before Terride was aware of his 
having passed the Garonne. A panic seized the 
Romanist camp, which was immediately broken 
up, and Terride retired in all haste to Orthez. 
When the people of Navarrenx looked over their 
walls on the morning of the 9th of August, 
1 behold there was no man there ! ' That day, the 
famished and worn-out garrison and inhabitants, 
who had been shut up for seventy-seven days, and 
subjected to hourly assaults and dangers, devoted 
to a public thanksgiving to the God who had thus 
mercifully served them, and in whom they 
trusted. 

The troops of Montgomery were soon seen 
before Navarrenx, but they did not enter the town ; 
for the exhausted place had only gratitude to offer 
them, and the work of deliverance was only be- 
gun. Montgomery therefore moved on to Orthez, 
in pursuit of Terride, who yet found time in his 
retreat to devastate the country, and practise his 
usual atrocities. Amongst others he burnt the 
mansion of a Romanist gentleman, who, notwith- 
standing his creed, had adhered to the queen. 
The Sieur Vasson was ninety years old, and might 
well have been spared a declaration of partizanship, 
yet Terride's troops slew the old man and his only 



THE SIEGE OF NAVARRENX. 81 

daughter, and threw their bodies into the neigh- 
bouring river. But the career of the spoiler was 
near its termination. On the 13th of August, 
Montgomery arrived before Orthez. Having al- 
lowed his troops two hours rest, they were assem- 
bled for prayer, after which, at mid- day, he led 
them on the assault of the town. Troops so 
instigated, so strengthened, so led, could not be 
resisted. They mounted the walls, -poured into 
the place with overwhelming ardour, and the un- 
fortunate town of Orthez was subjected to all the 
horrors of an assault. A crowd of monks, priests, 
and refugees, besides the routed military, suffered 
on this occasion, from the exasperation of their 
opponents. Terride and his principal officers shut 
themselves up in the castle, but with such pre- 
cipitation, that neither a sufficient garrison for its 
defence, nor ammunition or provisions were got 
together for its maintenance. Accordingly,, on 
the 15th, Terride was compelled to capitulate. 
By the first article of this capitulation, all the 
Protestant ministers in Beam were to be set at 
liberty, and have restitution of their goods which 
had been seized. By the second, Terride was to 
be exchanged for the brother of Montgomery, 
(a prisoner of Monlucq's,) or to pay eight hundred 
crowns ransom. By the third article, e all the 
other chiefs and gentlemen, not excepting even 

e 5 



82 CHAPTER V. 

the Bearnois rebels/ were to be exchanged or 
ransomed. This article, subsequently gave rise 
to much discussion, as we shall presently, have 
occasion to notice. 1 The vigour and decision of 
Montgomery were eminently evinced on this oc- 
casion : for, on the very day of signing the capitu- 
lation, Monlucq had reached St. Sever, only ten 
miles from Orthez. The French general and his 
'lackies,' retreated in haste, baffled from their 
expected prey. As to Terride, he died shortly 
after from disease, either produced or accelerated 
by vexation. 

Montgomery was now joined by the liberated 
Protestants, (who crowded to his victorious ban- 
ner,) and proceeded on his march for Pau, the 
capital of Beam. The Sieure de Peyre was the 
Governor of that town, appointed by Terride, who 
had also ejected all the Protestant members of the 
government, and substituted Romanists. Peyre 
had imprisoned the leading partizans of the queen 
and the ministers of Pau, Antoine Pourrat, 

1 As this Article has given rise to much controversy amongst 
historians, it is here given in the original. "3°. Que les autres 
chefs et gentilshommes renferm^s dans le chateau d'Orthez, tous, 
sans en excepter merae les Bearnais rebelles n'auront nul d^plai- 
sir, mais la vie sauve : seulement ils resteront prisonniers de 
guerre jusqu'a leur entier echange avec les Protestants du 
m6me rang, qui se trouve, entre les mains des Catholiques, on } 
a leur choix, jusqu'a ce quils aient paye leur rangons." 



THE SIEGE OF NAVARRENX. 83 

Augier de Plantier and Pierre Viret. He received 
the news of Montgomery's entry into Beam on 
the 12th of August in the evening while at sup- 
per, and excited, possibly, by the hilarity of the 
repast, as well as the intelligence he had received, 
he immediately ordered Pourrat and Plantier to 
be brought out of their dungeon and marched by 
beat of drum to the market-place, where, being 
followed by himself, as is affirmed by his wife, 
the unfortunate ministers were hurried into eter- 
nity, by being publicly hung. Viret only was 
saved, because Montlucq had ordered him to be kept 
in safe custody. A deed like this could only have 
been performed by a dastard. Having, subse- 
quently, learned the intelligence of the capture of 
Orthez, and the advance of Montgomery on Pau, 
Peyre quitted the chateau of that place, early on 
the morning of the 19th, with his wife and family, 
and without any intimation, either to the garrison 
or functionaries of the town. It is said that the 
prisoners whom he had confined in the oubliettes of 
the chateau, (a high tower which stands close to 
the gateway,) seeing him, through their gratings, 
stealing off in this inglorious and selfish way, 
raised such shouts after him, that the town, 
which immediately encircles the castle, was roused 
to notice his disgraceful flight. He was shortly 
after surprised by the Protestants at Hagetmau, 



84 CHAPTER V. 

(twenty miles from Pau,) where having concealed 
himself under a bridge, he was discovered and 
shot in his lurking-place. 

Montgomery took quiet possession of Pau, 
where he was received where great rejoicing. His 
first proceeding, on entering the town, was to 
release the impatient tenants of the oubliettes, with 
whom, and a vast -crowd of citizens, he immedi- 
ately went to the adjoining church of St. Martin, 
where Pierre Viret gave public thanks to God, 
and afterwards an exposition of the 124th Psalm. 

Eight of the principal revolters taken at Orthez, 
suffered the penalty of the law. The Romanist 
historians maintain that they were treacherously 
murdered, not only contrary to the capitulation of 
Orthez, but, by being invited by Montgomery to 
an entertainment, where they were barbarously 
* poignarded ' by his orders. One portion of the 
charge appears to be disproved by the very terms 
of its statement. The bold warrior, confident from 
conquest, surrounded by his victorious troops, and 
a concurrence of Protestant partisans, had no need 
to practice treachery, especially towards those 
already in his power. The open, honourable, and 
religious character of Montgomery, are opposed to 
the commission of so perfectly gratuitous a crime ; 
nor can it be imagined, that an individual, who 
like him, bore the unhappy notoriety of having 



Montgomery's rout. 85 

innocently shed blood, (of which all but his own 
sensitive feeling acquitted him,) would so wantonly 
and unnecessarily have stained himself afresh, and 
with the hue of positive guilt. Was the bold and 
decisive Montgomery, the man to have invited the 
shackled and helpless revolters against this faith 
and their allegiance, to an ' entertainment.'' The 
i poignard ' also, let it be remarked, never was 
a Protestant weapon. 1 

The second part of the charge requires more 
consideration. The terms of the third article of 
the capitulation of Orthez, (which we have given in 
a previous note,) as it appears in the alleged ori- 
ginal autograph, which is still preserved, are 
remarkable. It is to be presumed that Montgo- 
mery drew up these terms, for Terride would not 
have used the word l rebels' as designating his 
own officers, nor was he in a situation to dictate 
terms. He is described as being totally defence- 
less, surrounded by Montgomery's troops, and 
ignorant of the operations of his friends. The fire 
that was laying the town in ashes, had, it is said, 
gained a wing of the castle, when Terride's bro- 

1 Montlucq mentions in his Memoirs, that the Protestants, 
(Noncombatants) to defend themselves against their Romanist 
oppressors, usually carried heavy sticks, called ' Johannots.' 
Defoe tells us, the Protestants of his days carried what was termed 
a ' Protestant flail,' a pliable stick loaded with lead. 



86 CHAPTER V. 

ther, de Sevignac, a Protestant, serving with 
Montgomery, besought that general to spare his 
relative, and negotiated a surrender. Is it pro- 
bable that Montgomery should have offered to 
save the thrice guilty revolters, now completely in 
his power, and not only to spare their lives, but to 
declare that they should not even be molested ? 
{n auront nul deplaisir?) Catherine de Medicis 
is known to have destroyed some documents of that 
period, in order to compromise the character of 
her she most hated, Jeanne d'Albret ; and inter- 
polation of an existing document, or even its 
forgery, is not a more malign proceeding, morally 
considered. Is it not more accordant with the 
circumstances of the parties, and the usual phra- 
seology of articles of surrender, to conjecture that 
the words originally ran thus : — ' Que les autres 
chefs et gentilshommes, renfermes dans le Cha- 
teau d'Orthez, exceptes les Bernais rebelles, §c.' 
It is remarkable that the Romanist historian, 
Mathieu, states that one of the ' rebels,' (St. 
Colombe, who had surrendered on this occasion, 
and suffered death at Pau,) was excepted from 
the terms of the capitulation. Now, the capitu- 
lation itself makes no mention of individual names ; 
the conclusion therefore must be, that the rebels 
generally were excepted. To term those ' rebels,'' 
who were treated like ' chefs et gentilshommes,' 



Montgomery's rout. 87 

and to receive ' nul deplaisir,' appears in itself a 
contradiction. 

The capitulation was broken by tlie Romanists, 
who slaughtered the Protestant ministers in viola- 
tion of the first article. This is, undoubtedly, no 
justification of a reciprocal violation of it. But it 
may be doubted, whether those declaredly guilty 
of conspiracy and treason, previous to this rebel- 
lion, could be considered as comprised in an hon- 
ourable surrender, and that under such doubt, 
arising on a violated compact, the course of civil 
justice, and the operation of a national law, might, 
from a species of severe necessity, have been justi- 
fiably suffered to proceed. 

The Protestant historians acknowledge the exe- 
cution of the Bearnaise revolters, but they deny 
the mode, and defend the legality of the act. It 
remains even a matter of doubt, whether the eight 
who suffered at Pau, were captured at the assault 
of the town of Orthez, or the surrender of the 
castle. The character of Montgomery, and of 
the cause he maintained, may readily lead to 
the conjecture, that as only eight suffered, while 
hundreds must have been captured, those eight 
were taken under circumstances which justified 
their execution. 

The Romanist historians state that this alleged 
* atrocity ' took place on St. Bartholomew's day, 



88 CHAPTER V. 

(August 24,) of the year 1569, and that the demo- 
niac destruction, which for ever blackened the 
memory of the day, in 1572, was but a just re- 
prisal for this deed. Mark the gradation of Ro- 
manist sympathy, and the scale by which it regu- 
lates social regard : thirty thousand Protestant lives 
w T ere sacrificed as ' a just retribution for those of 
eight rebels of the Romish faith. The assertion 
violates both divine precept and human feeling. 

Montgomery had now leisure to turn his 
attention to the religious interests of those whom 
he had delivered from a thraldom of the worst 
kind. A synod was assembled, which re-enacted 
the establishment of the Protestant worship. The 
monasteries which had sprung up in the interval 
of Romish sway, were again dissolved, and the 
churches cleared of their demi-pagan accessories. 
These changes were quietly effected, for Montlucq 
and D'Anville could not agree upon the mode of re- 
conquering Beam, and wasted, in private dissen- 
tions, the time they should have employed in public 
effort. The union of the Protestant body, in con- 
sequence of their recent success, presented too for- 
midable an opposition to the discomfited generals. 

But the domestic enemies of the Protestant 
faith were still in activity. The province of Bi- 
gorre, on the eastern frontier of Beam, (which to 
this day is noted for superstitious bigotry,) became 



Montgomery's rout. 89 

a refuge for the Romish party. They established 
themselves in the town of Tarbes, (only twenty- 
five miles from Pau,) and prepared for a fresh 
onset. But Montgomery, with his usual promp- 
titude, marched his troops to Tarbes on the 1st of 
September, and entering it after some ineffectual 
opposition, which led to the pillage of the town, 
immediately proceeded to the re-establishment of 
the Reformed worship. The monks and chapters 
of the Romish church, who had, during Terride's 
sway, resumed the occupation of the convents and 
cathedrals, were, it must be acknowledged, with 
stern severity, driven from their posts. Most of 
the convents were burnt by the troops, but chiefly 
by the partizan corps, who, spreading over the 
country, and being actuated by the resentment of 
their personal and local injuries, were not sparing 
in the mode and measure of retribution. Many 
instances of cruelty towards the Romish ecclesias- 
tics, are. unhappily recorded. Those who refused 
to quit their stations, were summarily sacrificed to 
the impatient spirit of these roving restorers of 
reform. One instance of the tenacious determi- 
nation of the priests is remarkable. The monks 
of the Augustine convent at Orthez, calmly waited 
the approach of Montgomery's troops, who, how- 
ever far from maltreating them, were gratified by 
the reception given them. 



90 CHAPTER V. 

The prior, Jean Simon, was, it was conceived, 
disposed to embrace the Reformed faith, and pos- 
sibly, thus led to the forbearance shown to his 
brethren. A day was appointed for the public 
profession of the new faith by the imagined pro- 
selyte. A great crowd filled the church to hear 
Father Simon. He entered the pulpit and ad- 
dressed the excited congregation, but instead of a 
recantation of errors, he launched forth into the 
most violent denunciation of the Reformed doc- 
trines. The tide of feeling which had at first been 
so greatly in his favour, reacted with force against 
him. An infuriated trooper shot him in the midst 
of his harangue. 

This total repression of Romanist sway in eccle- 
siastical matters, was only carrying into effect the 
decree of the synod of Lescar, assembled by 
Montgomery. The celebration of mass was for- 
bidden, under severe penalties. None but re- 
formed ministers could baptize or preach, and 
these ministers were directed to make missionary 
excursions throughout the country, to perform 
the necessary functions of spiritual office. 

During the operations of Montgomery, in tra- 
versing Beam, and restoring the Protestant insti- 
tutions, Montlucq, though unable to prevent that 
proceeding, had not been idle. The town of 
Mont-de-Marson, in the Landes, on the north 



THE COUNT BE MONTGOMERY. 91 

western frontier, was assailed by him, and it de- 
tained him before it a considerable time. Mont- 
gomery had not force sufficient to retain his 
conquest, and assist Mont-de-Marson ; while to 
march to that distant point, would have left Beam 
exposed to the attacks of Marshall d'Anville. 
Under these circumstances, M. Favas, who held 
the town for the queen of Navarre, found it hope- 
less to continue its defence, and therefore, pro- 
posed to capitulate. Montlucq assented; a con- 
ference was appointed, but in that moment of 
fancied security, he ordered his soldiers to assault 
the town, and spare no one. He was faithfully 
obeyed. 

The arms of the Huguenots in France had not 
been so successful as those of their brethren in 
Navarre. The loss of the battle of Moncontour, 
at this time, forced the former to fall back on the 
southern provinces, where their party was strongest, 
and Montgomery was required to join the princi^ 
pal army on the banks of the Dordogne. He 
accordingly marched at the head of his victorious 
troops, pursuing his route with the same unvaried 
success. He quitted Navarre on the 15th of 
October, having in less than ten weeks, re-con- 
quered the whole kingdom of lower Navarre, and 
re-established the authority and institutions of 
its legitimate sovereign. Montlucq, his principal 



92 CHAPTER V. 

opponent, (himself one of the most skilful and 
daring generals of that time,) expresses his admi- 
ration at the bold and well-planned manoeuvres of 
Montgomery. When he heard that the count had 
passed the Garonne, in the face of every pre- 
cautionary defence, he would not credit the in- 
formation ; but being assured of the fact, he hints 
that the Protestants were aided by the prince of 
darkness, and that he, devoutly, * thrice made 
the sign of the cross ! ' 

As we are now taking leave of Montgomery, 
whose exploits were performed at a distance from 
the scene to which our notices chiefly refer, it 
may be satisfactory to give a summary detail of 
his future course. 

The effectual aid, afforded by his skill and 
efforts, to the Protestant cause, excited the anger 
of his most Christian majesty. The Parliament 
of Paris condemned him to death, par contumace, 
soon after his leaving Beam, and he was executed 
in effigy. The peace of St. Germains, (22nd of 
August, 1570), by which these civil feuds were 
for a while composed, procured his indemnity. 
He was at Paris in 1572, on the fatal 24th of 
August, the day of the massacre of St. Bartho- 
mew's. It may readily be conceived, that the 
count de Montgomery was marked Out as a 
special victim, but it pleased God then to save 



THE COUNT DE MONTGOMERY. 93 

him. He escaped on horseback, riding, as is 
recorded, thirty leagues at a stretch, and having 
been pursued during a third of that distance ; a 
prodigious effort, but it was an effort for life. 
He reached the island of Jersey, and subsequently 
England ; where he married the daughter of an 
English naval officer. In 1573, he fitted out and 
commanded a small fleet of private-armed ships, 
which sailed from an English port, for the relief 
of Rochelle; the civil war having again broke 
out. But in this expedition he failed, and was 
compelled to return to England. His martial spirit 
and devotion to the cause of the Reformers, led 
him again to join the Huguenot standard, and he 
was entrusted with the government and defence 
of Domfront in Normandy. Being besieged in 
this fortress in 1574 by Massillon, a general of 
the guise faction, he was compelled to surrender, 
and was carried a prisoner to Paris. The queen- 
mother, Catherine de Medicis, bore an implacable 
hatred to Montgomery, not only on account of 
his religion and services, but from his having been 
the unfortunate instrument of the death of her 
husband, Henry II. She accordingly revived the 
sentence against him pronounced by the Parlia- 
ment of Paris, three years previous, and he was 
executed, by her order, on the 25th of June, 1574. 
There is great similarity between the lives and 



94 CHAPTER V. 

characters of the two nearly contemporary heroes 
of those times, Sir Walter Raleigh, and count 
de Montgomery. The spirit, as it were, of the 
same soil is discernible in both ; the same daring 
splendour of achievement; the same confident 
reliance on self-resource ; the same devotion to 
the same cause during life ; and the same pecu- 
liarity of circumstances attending their death. 



CHAPTER VI. 



TOTAL ABOLITION OF ROMANISM IN BEARN. 
DEATH OF JEANNE D'ALBRET. 

The Baron d'Arros and M. Montamat, were left 
in charge of the civil and military government of 
Navarre by Montgomery, they having held the 
same offices previous to the entry of the viscount 
de Terride. The name and power of Montgomery 
had hitherto kept the country in subjection, but 
now the restless spirits raised their heads again. 
De Luxe, the conspirator against the queen's 
person, and the first who raised the standard of 
revolt, had been driven to take shelter in the 
fastnesses of the Pyrennees. He now re-appeared, 
and, having privately given notice of his design, 
a number of small parties converging secretly to- 
wards the town of Tarbes, took possession of and 
established themselves in that place. Montamat, 
however, who had profited by the skilful teaching 
of Montgomery, lost no time in advancing against 



96 CHAPTER VI. 

the revolters ; and, having unexpectedly stormed 
the town in the night time, put the crowd of de 
Luxe's followers to the sword. De Luxe, him- 
self, with his usual good fortune, escaped. This 
timely defeat kept down the risings that had been 
projected throughout Beam, and the country, 
happily, again enjoyed a season of repose. 

A silent conformity to the new order of things 
now prevailed, and the government of the queen 
took measures for the settlement of ecclesiastical 
order, and the establishment of religious union. 
On the 28th of November, ] 569, an ordonance 
was published, of which the following is the chief 
portion. 

' A considerable period has elapsed since the 
blessing of heaven has been shed on Beam, by 
permitting the reformed doctrines to be preached, 
in order to dissipate the long established errors 
which had overspread religion, and from which the 
people have been delivered by the operation of that 
grace which had conducted the queen herself to 
the knowledge of the truth. Her majesty's tender 
love for her subjects, towards whom she has the 
bowels of a mother \les entr allies de mere] joined 
to the voice of her conscience, having made it her 
duty to communicate to them this happy know- 
ledge, she fulfilled that obligation through the aid 
of the ministers whom she had invited to her do- 



ABOLITION OF ROMANISM IN BEARN. 97 

minions, and by whose labours the work of God 
has prospered, so that their hearers have renounced 
the idolatry that enslaved them, for the extir- 
pating which the queen exerted her sovereign 
authority. ...... The progress of these doc- 
trines amongst her subjects, induced the queen to 
grant liberty of conscience, equally extending it 
to those who professed what they call Catholicism, 
which, however, being founded only on human 
opinion, must be a false religion. But instead of 
acknowledging this gracious proceeding, many of 
her subjects, some openly, others in secret, con- 
spired and raised revolts, seized on the towns, 
abolished the true faith, murdered its ministers, 
re-established the Roman worship, administered the 
government in the name of another prince, sup- 
pressed her authority, and wounded her honour in 
many ways. It was necessary to repress these 
injuries, and punish their authors in justice to her 
faithful subjects. It was her duty to deprive 
those, whose religion led them to abolish that 
which she professed, of the liberty they abused. 
But, in this, she had overstepped no law. Those 
who violated conventions and solemn obligations 
renounced the operation of them on themselves. 
It was not proper longer to delay conforming to 
the command of God, who would be worshipped 
according to the faith delivered by the Prophets 



Vb CHAPTER VI. 

and Apostles, which the Romish faith was not. 
The country could not be left without religion ; 
divine wisdom had turned the designs of wicked 
men against themselves, and made them serve for 
the establishment of the true faith. They must 
be deprived of a liberty they knew not how to use. 
And seeing that the divine law orders princes to 
lead their people in the ways of truth, which can 
alone be done by the encouragement of the true 
preaching of the gospel, and the repression of those 
who corrupt the doctrines of salvation, the gover- 
nors of the kingdom, acting in the name and under 
the authority of the queen, decree — 

' 1. The queen, desiring that the word shall 
be announced only by those, who, being called by 
God, have a legitimate vocation, her majesty, for 
that purpose, annuls, repeals, banishes, and pror 
scribes all exercise of the Roman religion, without 
any exception; such as masses, vespers, proces- 
sions, litanies, vigils, feasts, painted or carved 
images, luminaries, offerings, and, especially those 
usually made at funerals, as customary in the 
Romish church. 

' 2. [Orders the removal of all altars and altar- 
pieces from churches.] 

' 3. All the inhabitants of the country, of what- 
soever rank, are enjoined to attend the preachings, 
instructions and prayers offered by the ministers 



ABOLITION OF ROMANISM IN BEARN- 99 

of the gospel according to the word of God, her 
majesty desiring that the inhabitants of all places, 
wherein such worship is established, shall duly 
attend at each service, and those who are distant, 
at least every Sunday; and the jurats of every 
district are required to enforce the execution of 
this order, each one observing the conduct of those 
under them, and making a faithful report of those 
who refuse obedience. 

' 4. [Subjects the inhabitants of each district to 
the control of its consistory, which is empowered 
to summon individuals to account for their con- 
duct, and to reprimand and correct.] 

' 5. Seeing that the reformed church recog- 
nizes baptism as being one of the sacraments 
established for receiving the signs of the remission 
of sins, whence it imposes on parents the duty of 
presenting their children to the church to be bap- 
tized, yet, as a great many persons refuse to per- 
form this duty, pretending to fulfil it by adminis- 
tering that sacrament themselves, the queen 
interdicts all parents, god-fathers, &c. from bap- 
tizing, under such penalties as she shall further 
decree. 

' 6. [Recognizes the validity of Romish bap- 
tism, performed while that worship was permitted, 
but ordains that those who have been baptized by 
Romish priests, subsequent to the prohibition of 
F 2 



100 CHAPTER VI. 

that worship, shall be re-baptized by the reformed 
pastors, under penalty of punishment as rebels.] 

( 7. [Prohibits the re-baptizing by Romish 
priests.] 

' 8. It is forbidden to announce or publish the 
days of the papal festivals, and thus to keep peo- 
ple in superstition and idleness, against the law of 
God which prohibits both ; for which reason it is 
enjoined on all to work six days of the week, 
and to inform against those who do contrary. 

f 9. Marriage, not being such, unless sanctioned 
by the benediction of the church, all persons are 
required to give public notice of their intended 
union, that it may be ratified and blessed in the 
face of the reformed church, on pain of subjection 
to the laws against concubinage. 

( 10. The priests, monks, and other ecclesiastics 
of the Romish church, are forbidden to remain in 
the country except by licence of the queen ; but 
all who fear God and respect the orders of govern- 
ment, will be so licensed. 

* 11. The effects of proper education being of 
the greatest importance, none will be permitted 
to act as a schoolmaster, unless of the reformed 
religion ; and every one who would act in such 
capacity, must be examined by a minister, who 
will judge of his ability and other qualifications 
for the due performance of his functions. 



ABOLITION OF ROMANISM IN BEARN. 101 

' \2. All matters and business of justice shall 
cease on the Sabbath day, unless in cases of ne- 
cessity : the shops and public houses shall be 
closed during the time of divine service, at which 
all persons ought to attend. All sports, usually 
lawful, are interdicted during the same period. 

f 13. [The first part regulates the period of 
preaching at other times than on the Sabbath.] 
There shall be a cessation from labour during the 
preaching, and not at other times, in order that 
superstition may not be revived by the observance 
of days. 

' 14. [Regulation of interments of the dead.] 

{ 15. And as, by the instigation of the evil 
spirit, many have withdrawn from the church 
after having embraced its doctrines, and others 
have been cut off from it on account of their im- 
proper conduct, without either of these parties 
having manifested a desire to return; it is hereby 
ordered that both those who have been excom- 
municated by the church, as well as those who 
have voluntarily separated from it, shall be chas- 
tized and punished by the magistracy, as scanda- 
lous livers, rebels, and disturbers of the church, if, 
during the space of a year, they shall not return 
to their duty and give signs of repentance. 

( 16. [Regulates payment of tythes and church 
dues.] 



102 CHAPTER VI. 

' Lastly. In order that no one may have oppor- 
tunities of wasting time in evil ways, all illegal 
games, dances, masquerades, impure songs, and 
such like disorderly proceedings are hereby pro- 
hibited.' 

This proclamation, there is reason to believe, 
was drawn up by Armand Guillaume Barbaste, 
formerly a Carmelite monk, who had embraced the 
reformed faith, and was one of the ministers of 
Lescar. He had been deputed by the synod, 
which met early in October of this year (1569), to 
attend the queen of Navarre at Rochelle, in order 
to obtain her sanction for the proceedings of that 
body. It is an ordonnance sufficiently determi- 
nate in its enactments, except in the 12th article, 
which is at variance with the third. The word 
of God, which is professed to be the guide and 
ground work of this religious legislation, allows 
no abatement of the sanctity of the Sabbath. He 
" who dwelleth in a temple not made with hands," 
has not restricted the period of holy rest to the 
opening and shutting of a house of prayer. 

Nearly one hundred and fifty Romish ecclesi- 
astics are said to have conformed to the terms of 
the tenth article of this code. The number of the 
clergy and monks of that communion, at that time 
in Beam, were computed at two thousand. The 
greater portion of these sought refuge in the 



ABOLITION OF ROMANISM IN BEARN. 103 

neighbouring countries of France and Spain, wait- 
ing their turn of invasion : 

* As when a prowling wolf 
Watches where shepherds pen their flocks at eve ; 
Gr like a cormorant, devising death 
To those who lived.' 

The opportunity was soon afforded. The court 
of France, bigotedly hostile to the reformed faith, 
readily listened to the appeals of the refugees for 
aid, and ordered Montlucq to assemble a force 
for the reconquest of Beam. That general lost 
no time in drawing the fugitives from that country 
round him at Nogaro. The towns of Bordeaux, 
Bayonne, and Thoulouse, were ordered to send 
him all their field artillery, and his brother, the 
bishop of Valence (who had retroceded from the 
Protestant to the Romish church) supplied him 
with funds for the destruction of his former 
brethren. 

The veteran rebel, the count de Luxe, was again 
in motion, and joined Montlucq at Acqs in Lan- 
guedoc, with a body of Romanist refugees. At 
the head of these forces, in June 1570, Montlucq 
advanced into the queen's dominions and laid siege 
to Rabastens, a fortified town, about forty-five 
miles to the west of Pau. The governors of the 
kingdom, d'Arros and Montamat, were taken by 
surprise, and immediately despatched orders to the 



104 CHAPTER VI. 

different leaders of their party to assemble for the 
defence of their country and religion. These 
despatches were intercepted, and thus the enemy 
had time for the due development of his plans. 

After five days' prosecution of the siege of 
Rabastens, Montlucq ordered an assault. He ex- 
horted his soldiers to remember that the enemies 
of their faith, heretics condemned already, were 
opposed to them ; that they must revenge the in- 
juries their brethren had suffered, and spare no 
one. Leading his men on to execute these 
savage orders, Montlucq received a severe, and, as 
it subsequently proved, a mortal wound. But he 
had strength and resolution enough to urge his 
troops to the onset, stimulating them still more to 
avenge his personal disaster. They rushed to the 
walls, overpowered the garrison, and commenced 
their work of butchery. Out of the whole garri- 
son and population of Rabastens, only four in- 
dividuals escaped with life, two of these being 
Romanists. The authorities of the town, with 
the ministers and members of the consistory, had 
sought shelter in a high tower overlooking the 
ramparts. Montlucq's men forced these, to the 
number of fifty, to leap from its height, by which 
they were either crushed by the fall, or drowned 
in the fosses. 

While Montlucq was occupied before Rabastens, 



ABOLITION OF ROMANISM IN BEARN. 105 

Bonasse, a Bearnoise partizan at the head of 
another corps, surprised Tarbes. But Montamat 
had now assembled a competent force for taking 
the field, and marched to Tarbes, which is twenty 
five miles from Pau, the seat of government. 
Having brought up his artillery, he soon effected 
a breach, and the unfortunate town was, for the 
third time, subjected to the horrors of an assault. 
Bonasse, and many other of the rebel chiefs, 
amongst the rest the Abb& de Sauvelade, were 
killed, together with nearly the whole garrison. 
Montamat pursued his victorious career in repress- 
ing attempted risings in other parts of the country, 
until the intelligence of negociations having com- 
menced between the king of France and the queen, 
calmed the excitement of both parties. Peace 
was signed at St. Germains on the 22nd of Au- 
gust, 1570 ; a peace which was only a disguised 
war, and, during whose nominal continuance, more 
Protestant lives were sacrificed than actual conflict 
would probably have destroyed. 

The queen of Navarre, who had, hitherto, re- 
mained at Rochelle to aid with her energy and 
talent, the Huguenot cause in France, upon the 
success of which depended the maintenance of her 
own institutions, now returned in triumph to her 
own dominions. Her first and most anxious en- 
deavour was the perfect settlement and clear 

F 5 



106 CHAPTER VI. 

position of religious matters. An exterior con- 
formity to her views was not the sole object of this 
pious princess. Her tender solicitude for the best 
interests of her subjects, required that " a right 
spirit should be put within them." The synod of 
Rochelle had been consulted by the queen re- 
specting the drawing up an exposition of the 
reformed faith, a work which had been previously 
performed, in 1559, by the general assembly of 
the French Protestant church, but had been since 
modified to meet the peculiar state of the times. 
This declaration of doctrine, together with the 
mode of its ministration, was embodied in a decree 
published by the queen soon after her return to 
Beam. It is entitled l Ordonnances ecclesias- 
tiques de Jeanne, par le grace de Dieu, reine de 
Navarre, sur le retablissement du royaume de 
Jesus Christ en son pays souverain de Beam.' 

This paper is an enlarged and more definite 
copy of the proclamation published in the queen's 
name, on the 25th of November previously. 
The preamble states it to be both the right and 
the duty of sovereigns, to attend to the welfare 
of the souls, as well as the persons and properties 
of their subjects : ( and that duty consists, not 
only in their leading their people to the sources of 
truth, but in excluding all error, falsehood, 
and superstition, and in sustaining a well-regu- 



ABOLITION OF ROMANISM IN BEARN. 107 

lated system of morals, which would be relaxed 
or destroyed if not founded on, and supported by, 
the power of religion and the purity of worship.' 

The number of parishes in Beam was four 
hundred and fifty. In each of these, a minister 
was to be resident, having previously been exa- 
mined and licensed by the consistory or synod, 
and having taken an oath before a magistrate, to 
adhere to the confession of faith adopted by the 
reformed Church, and to obey the civil authority 
of the realm. No one was to be allowed to preach 
without this previous proceeding, under pain of 
banishment. All persons were commanded to at- 
tend divine service, under penalty of five sous for the 
poor, and ten sous for the rich, for the first offence ; 
five livres penalty for the poor, and ten for the 
rich, for the second failure ; and of imprisonment 
for the third. Those who absented themselves 
from the Lord's Supper, after due remonstrance, 
were to suffer exile for two years. The sabbath- 
day was commanded ' to be sanctified by Christian 
works, and the suspension of all employ, either 
servile or vicious ; ' meaning, of course, sports 
and public festivities. 

The government of the Church was entrusted 
to an ecclesiastical council, consisting of two lay- 
men, ( ' deux gentilsliommes] ) two ministers, two 
of the queen's ordinary council, two of the cham- 



108 CHAPTER VI. 

bers of accounts, two deacons, two inspectors, 
( ( surveillantsj) and two jurats of the principal 
towns. These were to be chosen by the national 
synod annually. The synod itself, composed of 
delegates from the body of the clergy, and in 
which the queen or her deputy presided, met at 
least once a year. Besides the election of the 
ecclesiastical council, it was empowered to decide 
all cases of spiritual delinquency, or clerical dif- 
ferences. The duties of the council were those 
of patrons of benefices, and guardians and re- 
ceivers of the revenues of the Church. The 
rents of bishop's lands, or those of the suppressed 
monastic institutions, prebendaries, canonries, 
and ecclesiastical dues in general, were received 
by the diacre-general, and accounted for to the 
council, who regulated the payment for the sup- 
port of the parochial clergy, public schools, widows, 
orphans, strangers, or casual poor, and also for 
the settlement, by portion, of young women, 
principally the children or widows of those con- 
nected with the Church. 

Besides these two principal ecclesiastical bodies, 
there were consistories and conferences. ( Collo- 
ques.) The latter being committees or branches 
of the first, consisting of surveillants or inspec- 
tors, who reported breaches of discipline or doc- 
trine to the main body. The ministers or pastors 



ABOLITION OF ROMANISM IN BEARN. 109 

were chosen by the parishioners of each place, the 
ecclesiastical council, or, in the case of private 
right, the patron, naming two candidates to the 
consistory or conference, who appointed the time 
of election by the people of the vacant benefice, 
having previously examined and testified as to the 
qualifications of the parties. The ministers were 
paid by the council, not by the parishioners, and 
were excluded from all civil jurisdiction or employ. 

Many regulations follow for the setting the poor 
to work, or maintaining those willing but unable to 
perform it ; for the education of poor children, 
( that they might be brought up in the fear of 
God, and, if they possess talent, or a peculiar turn 
for any particular employ, that they should be further 
instructed in letters, or such particular pursuit ; ' * 
and also for the repression of all public disorder. 

The Romanist faction had still strength and 
daring enough to oppose the execution of this 
ordinance. They saw that its enforcement would 
be the death blow of their party ; and they endea- 
voured to excite public feeling against the enact- 
ment, by declaring that it was opposed to the 
rights and liberties of the people. But Jeanne 
d'Albret was not of a character to allow her 

1 It may be noticed, en passant, that the want of this discri- 
mination and selection is a great blemish in the educational 
system of England. 



110 CHAPTER VI. 

judgment or her conscience to be set aside or 
quieted by opposition of any kind ; and by her 
firm and steady perseverance, the estates of her 
kingdom at last were induced to acquiesce and 
register her decree. It was published on the 15th 
of January, 1572. 

At this period, negociations for an union be- 
tween Henry, prince of Navarre, and Marguerite 
de Yalois, sister of Charles IXth of France, 
were in course of discussion. The queen of 
Navarre, notwithstanding the difference of re- 
ligion, seemed to be attracted by the hope of 
terminating the hostile influence of the French 
court, and of drawing into real affinity, the ties 
of family. The house of Valois were her nearest 
kindred, and another Marguerite was to sit on 
the Navarre throne; both agreeable inductions 
to the feeling heart of Jeanne d'Albret. Alas ! 
she little imagined that this union would be but 
an ursine embrace; that she was only drawn 
nearer, to be crushed more completely ! 

Soon after the publication of the ' Ordonnances 
Ecclesiastiquesy the queen of Navarre set off for 
Blois, where the French court then was, and 
where her son, prince Henry, had preceded her. 
The court subsequently removed to Paris, and 
thither the queen followed. Gaillart, bishop of 
Chartres, who had embraced the reformed doc- 



ABOLITION OF ROMANISM IN BEARN. Ill 

trine, though he remained in alliance with the 
Romish church, had invited the queen to his 
palace, and thither her majesty proceeded, happy, 
doubtless, in being welcomed by a Christian bro- 
ther. But the hand of death was upon her, ready 
to bear her away to " a better country." She 
arrived at Paris on the 4th of June 1572 ; on the 
9th she was a corpse. The Protestant historians 
of Beam, (Olhagaray and D'Aubigne,) aver that 
the queen was poisoned, and, significantly remarks, 
that it occurred at an entertainment at which the 
duke of Anjou, (afterwards Henry III. of France) 
was present. But though there is no moral rea- 
son to doubt this dark imputation on the duke's 
character, yet the physical appearances after death 
do not bear out the assertion. The pro ces-verbal, 
on the opening of the queen's body, states that 
an abscess was discovered on the left side, which 
accounted for her decease. Claude, bishop of 
Oloron, (in Beam,) who left a manuscript journal 
of the events of the time, states that the queen 
died of pleurisy, occasioned by the hurry of her 
journey. This appears very probable, or at least, 
that the excitement of her situation might have 
hastened the mortal tendency of her constitutional 
disorder. But the Romanist historians, (at least 
one of them, the Abbe Poeydevant,) aver that 
this morbid excitement was occasioned by the 



112 CHAPTER VI, 

intemperate anger of the queen, on being forced 
to hang out tapestry from the windows of her 
hotel, on the day of the procession of the F6te 
Dieu. This is at least a characteristic assertion. 

Jeanne d'Albret, wiien she found the end of her 
days was approaching, drew round her the most 
spiritual ministers of her creed, deriving much 
consolation from the fervent prayers of these righ- 
teous men. Her faith was stedfast, and calmly 
expectant of the promises she believed. The dis- 
position of her worldly affairs was also attended to 
with the same rectitude and judgment which she 
had evinced through life. She directed her re- 
mains to be interred, without pomp or vain cere- 
mony, in the same tomb with her late father, 
Henry II. of Navarre. 1 She left her son Henry 
the crown of Navarre, requesting the king of 
France, the queen mother, the dukes of Anjou 
and Alencon, to take him under their protection, 
and allow him the free exercise of his religion. 
Surely Jeanne d'Albret must have remembered 
that the " friendship of the world is enmity with 
God." But she died a few weeks before St. Bar- 
tholomew's day, 1572. 

Jeanne earnestly implored her son in her last 
will, (a document, which, if sculptured on the 

1 This was not done. Henry of Navarre was buried at Lescar, 
Jeanne d'Albret at Vendome. 



ABOLITION OF ROMANISM IN BEARN. 113 

tomb of Henry the Fourth, would be a sufficient 
illustration of his character,) to cultivate piety, 
and to regulate his conduct according to the doc- 
trines in which he had been brought up ; not to 
allow himself to be drawn away by the illusions of 
the world, by its pleasures or vices, falsely attrac- 
tive ; to watch with carefulness the execution of 
the ordinances she had published in Beam, not to 
suffer them to be changed or relaxed; to drive 
from his dwelling evil counsellors, flatterers, liber- 
tines, and irreligious men, and to draw around him 
people of character, pious and Christian persons ; 
to be a tender guardian of his sister Catherine, 
(the only remaining offspring of the queen, born in 
1558,) taking care that she should be educated in 
the reformed faith, and that she should be married 
only to a prince of the same communion. To every 
one of these earnest appeals of a pious and tender 
parent, Henry of Navarre acted in direct opposition. 
Jeanne d'Albret, who was born on the 7th of 
January, 1528, was consequently in her forty -fifth 
year when she died. She had reigned seventeen 
years in Navarre, during the last ten, as the sole 
administratrix of the government. One ruling 
principle seemed to actuate her conduct both in 
public and private life, the advancement of scrip- 
tural religion; it was her duty, her desire, 
her object in every political or municipal mea- 



114 CHAPTER VI. 

sure. To this her acute mind was bent, and 
her feeling heart inclined, her accomplishments 
(and she was skilled in all the knowledge of that 
day,) were but handmaids to her piety, and enabled 
her to act with readiness and effect, even when 
unsupported by those in whom she had trusted. 
Dandaux, her first minister, proved faithless to her 
and her cause ; Grammont, the hereditary friend of 
her family, deserted her in her need, and remained 
in a selfish neutrality. Miossens, the husband of 
Susanne de Bourbon, her son's early guardian, 
plotted against her life. But Jeanne d'Albret 
trusted in one that never forsaketh. How rarely 
have thrones been filled with such a ruler. The 
(( powers that be are " undoubtedly " ordained of 
God;" but though thus his servants , it is lament- 
ably true, that few have been his followers. Nor 
is it a consequence, as some appear to imagine, 
that being " ordained" sovereigns are necessarily 
sanctified. " Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, 
to Cyrus : I have surnamed thee, I have girded 
thee, though thou hast not known my name." l 

But " blessed is she that believeth, for there 
shall be a performance of those things that were 
told her of the Lord." 2 

1 Isaiah xlv. 45. 2 Luke i.«45. 



CHAPTER VII. 



HENRY THE THIRD OF NAVARRE, AND FOURTH 

OF FRANCE. THE PRINCESS CATHERINE 

OF NAVARRE. 

On the 18th of August, 1572, Henry, the young 
king of Navarre was united in marriage to Mar- 
guerite de Valois, the French king's sister. It is 
an appalling incident in the history of the human 
heart, that at the time of this union, Charles the 
Ninth had doomed his brother-in-law to death. 
That atrocious crime, the massacre of St. Bar- 
tholomew, took place only six days after the 
sacred ceremony ; a holy offering to bigotry, only 
exceeded by the wholesale slaughter of Protest- 
ants by the Irish Romanists in 1640. 

It is not within the scope of these local notices, 
to detail the history of this event at Paris. The 
influence its consequences had upon the kingdom 
of Navarre, were soon discernible. 

The king of Navarre had been saved from 



116 CHAPTER VII. 

intended destruction by the intervention of his 
bride, but he lost his liberty of person and con- 
science. He had not resolution sufficient to with- 
stand the importunities used to draw him over to 
Romanism, of which he not only made profession, 
but wrote to the pope on his conversion. Still 
further, in the face of his own regal duties, and the 
entreaty of her whom he had just committed to 
the tomb, he, within four months after that event, 
signed an ordinance for the abrogation of Protes- 
tantism in Navarre, and for the restitution of Ro- 
manism as it had previously existed. The execu- 
tion of this decree was committed to the Count 
de Grammont, and, as it would appear, without 
any reservation or softening clause or circum- 
stance which might intimate that it emanated not 
from voluntary feeling, but from coercion. The 
violation of a parental command, and the sacrifice 
of the cause of God, and the best interests of his 
people, as the price of personal safety, are not 
deeds which evince the two principal attributes of 
greatness, firmness of mind, and rectitude of 
purpose. 

The cries of the victims of St. Bartholomew's 
soon reached the ears of the Bearnoise people; 
crowds of miserable fugitives flocked to that yet 
Protestant asylum. The reins of government 
were in the hands of persons of that faith, and 



HENRY OF NAVARRE. 117 

instant precautions were taken to prevent treach- 
ery and aggression from the Romish party. The 
leading members of the church were banished, but 
no reprisal of a severe nature was inflicted on 
them ; and the frontier towns were garrisoned and 
placed under the command of faithful adherents. 

In this state of anxious solicitude the people of 
Beam remained, till on the 16th of October, a 
proclamation was received from the king of Na- 
varre, ordering the resumption of the Romish 
worship, the banishment of the Protestant clergy, 
and the restitution to honour, office, and estate, of 
all who had been dispossessed by the late queen. 
This unexpected blow roused a spirit of indigna- 
tion, not the less lively, because self-preservation 
was at stake. The estates of the kingdom and the 
synod, or general assembly of the church, were 
immediately convoked. A day of fasting and 
prayer was appointed, for imploring the guidance 
and assistance which they felt to be so necessary. 
The king of Navarre had written a letter to the 
estates, urging them to the quiet adoption of the 
new measure, but this unhappy evidence of volun- 
tary direction, was passed over with a mournful 
silence. It was unanimously voted, that as the 
king was a prisoner at Paris, it was necessary to 
provide for the government and defence of the 
country. 



118 CHAPTER VII. 

While proceedings were in progress for the pre- 
servation of the kingdom from external and inter- 
nal attempts, the Count de Grammont, who had 
been appointed by Henry to the government of 
Navarre, arrived on the frontier, from whence he 
despatched a letter ' to the rebels of B&arn? cau- 
tioning the Protestants, that the steps they were 
taking, would only draw down punishment on 
them. The baron d'Arros still remained in the 
post which the late queen had entrusted him with. 
His father, a man in his eightieth year, blind 
and infirm, except in spirit and purpose, was pre- 
sent when the letter of Grammont was read to the 
assembled council, and urging the immediate 
marching of a force to intercept the count, drew 
his sword, and presented the handle to his son, 
desired him to take that to Grammont, and use it 
for him. The appeal was not fruitless. Gram- 
mont was attended only by a party of Romanist 
exiles, who were now returning full of hope and 
exultation, and had arrived at the castle of Haget- 
man, where he was to pass the night. The baron 
d'Arros lost no time, but at the head of thirty- 
eight gentlemen of his party, rode off to Haget- 
man, surprised the unwary band whom he slew or 
put to flight, and rushing to the chamber of Gram- 
mont, would have put him to death but for the 
entreaties of the count's daughter-in-law. Gram- 



HENRY OF NAVARRE. 119 

mont was carried a prisoner to Pan, and the expec- 
tations of the Romanists were foiled. Arros, who 
had the chief direction of affairs, entered into an 
armed confederacy with the Protestant towns on 
the French frontier, for the negotiation of which, 
a meeting of deputies took place at Nismes early 
in 1573. Strengthened by mutual support, the 
Protestants of the south of France and of Beam 
enjoyed for a time a tranquil existence. 

By the death of Charles the Ninth in 1574, the 
duke of Anjou ascended the throne of France, 
under the title of Henry the Third. On his acces- 
sion, as a mark of grace, the king of Navarre 
obtained his liberty, and to cement more firmly 
the friendship of the two kings, they received the 
Eucharist at Lyons on the 1st of November 1574. 
The estates of Beam sent a deputation to their 
sovereign, testifying their satisfaction and fidelity, 
and offering donations to himself and sister. In 
the mean time they passed resolutions and laws for 
the security of their religious institutions. But 
the king of Navarre, though emancipated from his 
supposed thraldom, evinced no disposition to 
second the object of the estates in this respect. 
The baron d* Arros, when Henry recovered his 
liberty, waited on him at Lyons, and tendered his 
resignation as governor of the kingdom. Henry 
willingly accepted the offer of the Protestant 



120 CHAPTER VII. 

champion, and appointed in his room one of the 
Romanist revolters against his mother's authority, 
the bason de Miossens. 

The first act of the new viceroy was to dissolve 
the Ecclesiastical Council, appointed by the late 
queen, Jeanne d'Albret, appropriating to himself 
their duties and authority. The Protestant clergy, 
who foresaw, in this primary measure, their own 
ultimate overthrow, petitioned the Estates of the 
kingdom on the subject of this change. The 
Estates addressed Miossens in favour of the con- 
tinuance of the council, but he refused their 
request. On the other hand the Romanists sent a 
deputation to the king soliciting the extension, or 
rather the re-establishment of those privileges, 
which they then only possessed by sufferance. 
They were favourably received by the king, and 
liberty of open worship granted to them. 

These concessions to the Romish party, and the 
committal of power to the hands of one of that 
faith, was the more remarkable, since the king of 
Navarre, (having quitted the French court and 
joined the Huguenot forces under the duke 
d'Alencon,) had professedly returned to the Pro- 
testant church. But his courtiers were princi- 
pally Romanists, to whom, whether from policy or 
inclination, he listened more readily in council 
than to his Protestant advisers. Even a deputa- 



HENRY OF NAVARRE. 121 

tion from the Estates, who waited on the king to 
oppose the relaxation of the laws against the open 
profession of Romanism, returned unsuccessful from 
their mission. No further attempt, however, was 
made to violate the existing state of things, and 
the Protestants continued, while civil war was 
raging in France and on their frontier, to enjoy 
the exercise of their religion without other distur- 
bance than anxiety. 

It was not until the end of the year 1578 that 
the king of Navarre paid his first visit- to his domi- 
nions as a sovereign. He was accompanied by his 
queen, a bigoted Romanist, the daughter of 
Catherine de Medicis. The announcement of the 
approach of a member of that persecuting family, 
which had perpetrated the massacre of St. Bartho- 
lomew during the bridal festivities of their king, 
§eems to have excited universal consternation 
amongst the Protestant people of Beam. Singu- 
lar as it may appear when the ordinary feeling of 
subjects who greet a new sovereign is considered, 
the synod, which was then in session, immediately- 
ordered a national fast. The subsequent treat- 
ment of the queen does not appear to have been 
more flattering. The chapel of the Chateau de 
Pau had been prepared for the performance of the 
Romish worship for the queen's use. On Easter 

G 



122 CHAPTER VII. 

day, 1579, the Romanists of Pau, desirous of 
attending the solemnity on the occasion, crowded 
to the chapel, notwithstanding it had been forbid- 
den ; but the soldiers on guard, without respect 
to the place or the person of the queen, drove 
them out and imprisoned several. It is true that 
the king resented this proceeding, but the queen 
being incensed at the feeling of dislike which her 
religion engendered, suddenly quitted Pau for 
Nerac, declaring that she would never re-enter 
Beam till Protestantism was abolished. The 
generality of this adverse disposition to the queen 
and her opinions, as well as the firm stand made 
by the Estates of the kingdom against the restora- 
tion of Romanism, plainly show that the doctrines 
of the Reformers were widely and strongly esta- 
blished. Those just recovered from disease usually 
evince a more than ordinary precaution against its 
contagion. But can any man who feels the glow 
of health and the vigour of pure vital action within 
him, see unmoved, the plague-spotted victim or 
the cadaverous leper approach him ? Another 
proof of the earnest and general impression which 
the Reformed doctrines had made in Beam, was 
the missionary spirit of its people. The Navar- 
rese traders to Spain are described by the Roman- 
ist historians, as carrying with them across the 
Pyrennees, a { dogmatical spirit,' which caused the 



HENRY OF NAVARRE. 123 

Inquisition to send its familiars to the frontier to 
form a sanatory cordon. 

The civil war in France requiring the personal 
efforts of the king of Navarre, the regency of that 
kingdom was entrusted to his sister Catherine. 
This princess, now in her twenty-fourth year, was 
a devout and conscientious Protestant, of mild 
and amiable manners, but without the firmness of 
character which so remarkably distinguished her 
mother, Jeanne d'Albret. The placing the govern- 
ment of Beam in her hands, was a boon to the 
Reformers which they thankfully acknowledged ; 
and, though all questions of moment were referred 
to the king's own decision, yet, as his political 
interests led him into more decided opposition to 
the Romanist party in France, he acquiesced in 
most of the measures that were proposed to him, 
favourable to the Protestant party in Beam. A 
popular rumour, or prophecy as it was called, was 
current amongst the Huguenots, at this time, that 
the papal power would be put down by a Protest- 
ant prince who should become the chief of the 
Christian union. A Piedmontoise astrologer of 
the ( Francis Moore ' order, named Jacques Broch- 
art, was the author of this ' prophecy,'* which seems 
to have obtained credence at the court of Henry of 
Navarre. The gay and easy-tempered monarch 
(whose religious opinions, like his mantle, were put 
g 2 



124 CHAPTER VII. 

off or on according as the thermometer of his for- 
tunes rose or fell) was nattered into a stauncher 
profession of Protestantism, and despatched one of 
his councellors of state, Segur, on a mission to 
the reformed princes of Germany, in order to 
negotiate an alliance. Segur executed his mission 
in so indiscreet and vain-glorious a manner, that 
he was imprisoned by the Emperor, and gave 
occasion to many political pleasantries against the 
apostolic ambition of the libertine monarch* 

It was, possibly, from a knowledge of the cha- 
racter of Henry, that the king of France, on 
hearing of the failure of Segur's mission, des- 
patched one himself to the king of Navarre to 
endeavour to regain his alliance. The Duke 
d'Epernon was deputed on this occasion, and was 
received at Pau by the king of Navarre with much 
distinction. The duke's chief effort was to detach 
the king from Protestantism. Henry so far gave 
way, as to allow a conference to be held, in his 
presence, for the discussion of the merits of the 
two modes of faith. Maret, a pastor of the 
Reformed church sustained his tenets with ability 
and success. On being pressed as to the political 
expediency of the king's return to Romanism, and 
being asked whether it was a wise thing to prefer 
the psalms of Marot 1 to the crown of France, 
1 Clement Marot translated the Psalms of David. 



HENRY OF NAVARRE. 125 

Maret replied that the king might carry the 
psalms in his hand while the crown was on his 
head, and that the surest mode of obtaining that 
crown was to punish the murderers of St. Bar- 
tholomew's, to grant freedom of conscience, em- 
ploy the tithes in the maintenance of the true 
church of Christ, and thus to ensure that " peace 
which passeth understanding." 

This missionary effort of the French king took 
place during a short truce which had been agreed 
upon by the gasping combatants in these civil 
contests. It is said that the royal catechumen 
would have assented to the wishes of the courtly 
missionary, but for the persuasion of his chancel- 
lor, Arnaud Ferrier, who pointed out the impolicy 
of doing so at that juncture. 

These peaceful contests, however, soon gave 
way to the clamour of war. The French king, 
who was associated with the duke of Guise and 
the league, took up arms to oppose his expected 
convert, and issued severe edicts against the Pro- 
testants of his dominions. The king of Navarre, 
on the other hand, prepared to meet his oppo- 
nents ; and as the war was of a decidedly religious 
character, he published a manifesto declarative of 
his opinions, which were, probably, considered of too 
neutral a kind to gain favour with either party. In 
this manifesto, issued in 1585, Henry declared that 



126 CHAPTER VII. 

he was neithera heretic or apostate. Could he be a 
heretic who believedin the Old and New Testament 
and the Apostle's creed? Could he be an apostate, 
who had never abandoned the opinions in which he 
was educated ? If he was in error, he desired to 
learn the truth from a council lawfully assembled, 
having, as yet, acquired no light sufficient to dis- 
cover it. He was desirous of affording the e Ca- 
tholics ' the peaceful exercise of their faith, which 
he had always respected. 

This profession of faith called forth a bull of 
excommunication from Rome against Henry, de- 
priving him, by its sentence, of his dominions, and 
absolving his subjects from their oaths of alle- 
giance. At the same time the king of France 
issued an edict condemning all the Protestants in 
his territories to banishment and confiscation of 
goods, if they did not conform to Romanism with- 
in six months. In answer to these fulminations 
against himself and party, the king of Navarre 
ordered the authorities of his kingdom to treat the 
Romanists in their jurisdiction in the way that the 
French monarch should do the Protestants in his. 
The king of France not only adhered to his de- 
cree, but increased its severity, for two months 
before the period allowed for conformity, he limited 
the time to fifteen days. The king of Navarre 
was equally rigid, and thus a reciprocal ejection 



HENRY OF NAVARRE. 127 

of their subjects took place ; the Protestants of 
France, flying to Navarre, the Romanists of Na- 
varre to France. Much individual misery was 
caused by these proceedings, while the general 
strength of each party was increased, both in num- 
ber and hostility of feeling. 

To sustain the war, the estates of Beam, and a 
convocation of ministers of the church, held at 
Navarrenx, voted a subsidy to the king ; the latter 
body coming forward, for the first time, with a 
voluntary taxation. But the burdens, which these 
perpetual contests inflicted on the people, had, 
evidently, abated their zeal, for a vote of 18,000 
crowns having been moved by the nobility, the 
burgesses in the estates refused to concur in a 
larger grant than fifteen thousand. It is observ- 
able, also, that the king having endeavoured to 
raise a loan on a mortgage of the revenues of his 
dominions for forty years, the estates declared such 
to be contrary to the privileges and liberties of the 
country, and passed a resolution prohibiting such 
anticipatory measures of finance. Had this whole- 
some restriction of limiting the efforts of nations 
to the level of their immediate resources, been 
similarly observed by other states, much strife and 
bloodshed might have been avoided in subsequent 
ages. In a good cause, there is generally found 
sufficient energy to support it, and the necessity 



128 CHAPTER VII. 

of contemporaneous effort will excite that energy 
if it be deficient. This was evinced by Beam at 
that time ; the prudent economy of the burgesses 
of that state, called forth greater exertion on the 
part of the nobility and clergy, and many indi- 
viduals came forward with a liberal zeal. Funds 
were also raised by private contribution for the 
succour of places and persons who had suffered 
through their own exertions, or the operations of 
the war ; and throughout the country, voluntary 
offers of military service were general. 

Beam, however, was happily exempted from 
the actual evils of war, the contest being carried 
on in the heart of France. But the more rigorous 
enforcement of ecclesiastical discipline, consequent 
upon the religious excitement of this period, seems 
to have given rise to some domestic discord. The 
payment of tithes was resisted by some, when 
claimed by lay proprietors, and the question, as to 
its enforcement, divided the estates so equally, 
that the Princess Regent decided the point her- 
self, by issuing an edict in aid of its collection. 
The consistories, in the performance of their 
duties, excited, also, some discontent. A female, 
who was charged with using rouge, was publicly 
censured, and appears to have gained a party of 
lax religionists in her support, at Pau, tlie court 
residence. Yet deep and well-grounded senti- 



HENRY OF NAVARRE. 129 

ments of religion pervaded the Bearnoise commu- 
nity, and were evinced in love to the faithful 
brethren, as well as in rigour to the weak or stray- 
ing. Geneva was at this time threatened by the 
king of Sardinia, and Theodore Beza had written 
to the churches of Beam, through Lambert 
Daneau, professor of theology at Orthez, in favour 
of the • mother of the pure faith and asylum of the 
saints.' Daneau (who had recently finished a 
commentary on St. Matthew, which the estates 
ordered to be translated into the vulgar tongue, 
and printed at the public expence) was a popular 
preacher, and stirred up his brethren in the minis- 
try to plead the cause of the Genevese, which 
was done so effectually, that, notwithstanding the 
impoverished and burthened state of Beam, aid 
both of men and money were sent to Switzer- 
land. 

The death of Henry III. of France, in 1589, 
made roOm, on the throne of that kingdom, for 
Henry of Navarre. But the steps to that throne 
were as yet barricaded by the Romish league, 
which opposed its occupation by a heretic. Henry, 
to conciliate his opponents, published a declaration 
of his intention to respect the Roman faith in 
France, and to permit its worship in Beam. This 
declaration was neither satisfactory to friend or 
foe ; the Romanists had not pre-eminence, the 
g 5 



130 CHAPTER VII. 

Protestants had not security. Beam, however, 
continued for two years longer in comparative 
quietude. One event alone disturbed its peace. 

The Princess Catherine of Navarre, the regent 
of that kingdom, though a devoted Protestant, was 
strongly attached to a Romanist nobleman, the 
count de Soissons. The count was attached to 
the king of Navarre's party, and, as is alleged, had 
in view, by an union with the princess, to establish 
a claim to the crown of France, both from his 
marital right and his religion, which, if Henry was 
passed by, would, he conceived, ingratiate him 
with the French people. A correspondence was 
kept up between the princess and the count, 
through the countess of Grammont, a forsaken 
mistress of the Navarre monarch, and a clandestine 
marriage was determined on. To effect this, the 
count speeded to Pau, while Henry was engaged 
in the north of France. But Henry had good in- 
telligence and faithful friends. Paugeas, the pre- 
sident of the council of Navarre, on the night of 
count's arrival, surrounded the Chateau de Pau, 
and producing an order from the king, obliged 
the disappointed lover instantly to quit the king- 
dom. The princess, also, was subjected to tem- 
porary restraint ; but, when again at liberty, 
shame and vexation would not allow her to remain 
in a public station where so humiliating a noto- 



CATHERINE OF NAVARRE. 131 

riety attached to her. She accordingly determined 
to resign the regency of Navarre, and join her 
brother at Saumur ; and quitted Pau to the great 
regret of the people, in the month of October, 
1592. 1 

1 Catherine d'Albret subsequently married a Romanist prince, 
the duke of Lorraine and Bar, the 15th of January, 1599. It is 
pitiable to read her letters to her brother, Henry IV. describing 
the persecution she suffered from the Lorraine family, to induce 
her to change her religion . To these appeals, written in sisterly 
affection, tempered by conjugal regard, Henry, who knew not the 
nature of an awakened sense of religion, answered coldly. The 
pope for some time resisted the grant of a dispensation, even after 
the marriage. It at last arrived — on the clay of her death — which, 
there is little doubt, occurred through poison. Catherine, when 
pressed to turn Romanist, answered, ' Were there no other rea- 
son, I could never belong to a religion, which would teach me to 
believe that my mother was damned.' She died, February 13, 
1604. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF ROMANISM. EDICT OF 
FONTAINEBLEAU. 

The meridian height of religious prosperity had 
been attained in Beam. The shadows were now 
lengthening and betokening the fading of that 
light which had shone upon her. The princess 
Catherine was succeeded in the government of 
Navarre by a zealous Protestant, Jacques de Cau- 
mont, marquis de Laforce; but though thus in- 
ternally favored, yet the clamour of war was now 
approaching from without. The marshal de Vil- 
lars, one of the commanders of the league, was 
secretly invited by the Romanists of Tarbes, to 
take possession of that town. He accordingly 
marched into the province of Bisongorre (of which 
Tarbes is the capital) with a large force, and was 
admitted by the stratagem of his friends within. 
He then fell upon Pontacq, which, after a short 
siege, he entered and gave up to fire and sword. 



RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF ROMANISM. 133 

Advancing to Pau, he summoned that place to 
surrender, but was vigorously repelled, and finding 
opposition gathering round him, he found it 
necessary to retreat, devastating the country in 
his course. 

This incursion had been excited by the Navar- 
rese Romanists. A few short months after, an 
event happened which gave additional force to 
their attempts. Henry, now king of France by 
inheritance, found his nominal profession of Pro- 
testantism was a bar to his quiet settlement on the 
throne of that kingdom. After a short parade of 
hesitation, and a few flirting interviews with the 
disputants of Rome, the king declared himself of 
that communion on the 25th. of July, 1593. 

To those acquainted with the character of the 
gay, worldly-minded monarch, this event could 
not have been unexpected ; but on the people of 
Beam, generally, the intelligence came with an 
astounding effect. It is said that the synod, on 
learning the perversion of their native sovereign, 
directed that the public prayers, usually made for 
their prince, should be discontinued. This can 
scarcely be true in the terms in which it is stated. 
It is impossible that the reformed, or indeed any 
other Christian church, would have departed from 
so fundamental a duty, as that of praying for those 
whom God had set over them. The style of prayer 



134 CHAPTER VIII. 

must, of course, have been altered ; but that, 
doubtless, was all that was done on this occasion. 

Amongst other edicts relative to religion, issued 
by Henry IV. on this occasion, it was ordered 
that the Roman worship should be restored in all 
places whence it had been driven by the conflicts 
of war. The kingdom of Navarre had excluded 
that worship from its soil by the legislative sanc- 
tion of its queen, Jeanne d'Albret, and the con- 
currence of the estates, long previous to the war 
alluded to. The marquis de Laforce, there- 
fore, the governor of that state, took no measures 
to introduce, or sanction the Romish worship. 
The inhabitants of the valley of Barretons (a dis- 
trict a few miles to the south-west of Oloron) 
amongst whom were many of that faith, petitioned 
the estates of Beam to admit the exercise of its 
worship amongst them, conformably, as they 
alleged, to the above-cited edict. The estates 
debated long and violently respecting the admission 
of this petition, for, as yet, no one could be found 
openly to advocate the object the petition prayed 
for. The result of this debate was, that the pe- 
tition should be laid before the governor for his 
decision. That decision was adverse to the pe- 
titioners, but the marquis was summoned to Paris 
to answer for his judgment, which the king 
reversed. 



RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF ROMANISM. 135 

An alliance with Rome was concluded by the 
French court, by the terms of which the Roman 
religion was to be re-established in Navarre, its 
bishoprics restored, and conventual institutions 
refounded. This was not effected by a sudden 
change, for Henry was too well acquainted with 
his native country, and possibly, too considerative 
of its manifest wishes, to force these measures 
upon them. He began by bringing influence to 
bear upon individuals, thus undermining the sup- 
ports of party. Sponde, a Protestant minister, 
son of the secretary of Jeanne d'Albret, was in- 
duced to turn Romanist, and was- made bishop of 
Panders. Those reformed ministers who were 
most zealous in the maintenance of their creed, 
were distressed and harassed by the withholding of 
their stipends, which, as it will be recollected, were 
now payable by the crown, and not as originally, 
by an ecclesiastical council elected annually by 
the synod. Many were thus driven to seek sub- 
sistence, at a distance from their benefices, with 
relatives and friends. On every occasion of in- 
volvement between the two creeds, the Romanists 
presumed on the known tendency of the court. 
The decisions of consistories were first questioned 
and opposed, and then became scorned and power- 
less. Neglect of religious ordinances became 
observant; superstitious usages of former days 



136 CHAPTER VIII. 

were revived ; reprehension of them raised party 
feuds, and on all these occasions, the Romanists 
readily allied themselves to the soi-disant perse- 
cuted offender. 1 

In this state the kingdom remained till the 
edict of Nantes in 1598. This celebrated decree, 
which regulated the condition of the French Pro- 
testants, did not affect those of Navarre. The 
latter state claimed a separate legislation, and its 
peculiar privileges. The edict also, as it referred 
to a class of religionists who dissented from the 
established faith of the nation at large, could not 
apply to Beam, where Protestantism was, by 
sovereign decree, the only recognized religion. 
The estates despatched a deputation on the sub- 
ject to the king, which, according to his orders, 
was composed of two Protestants and two Roman- 
ists. It may readily be conceived that such a 
deputation, under the circumstances of the time, 
could only tend to advance the Romish interests. 

In April 1599, a decree was signed at Fontain- 
bleau by the king of France and Navarre, for the 
re-establishment of the i Catholic ' religion in the 
latter kingdom. This paper was drawn up under 
the king's inspection, by the chancellor of Na- 
varre, Pompone de Bellievre. The preamble 

1 The present state of Ireland will probably occur to the reader. 



RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF ROMANISM. 137 

declares the desire of his majesty to see all his 
subjects united in one mode of worship, since a 
concert of prayer, resulting from that harmony, 
would draw down more powerfully the benedic- 
tion of heaven on the king and his people. His 
majesty, however, wishing to unite those divided 
in opinion and by schism, announces that he is 
about to banish all constraint and all subject of 
jealousy, by granting to every one a requisite 
liberty of conscience, and exercise of worship, and 
by dispensing, as far as circumstances will allow, 
an equal treatment to the professors of the two 
creeds. But, waiting till it shall please God to 
grant his wishes, in drawing all his subjects to the 
belief and practice of the same faith, his majesty 
decrees, ' that all Catholics dwelling in Beam, 
shall have liberty to profess their ^religion, freely 
and publicly, in all places where it may be re- 
established: that lay-patrons of benefices of the 
Catholic faith, may present persons of that com- 
munion for filling the same, and performing the 
sacred functions according the rites of the Catholic 
church, notwithstanding any presentations which 
they may have already made, and which are de- 
clared null and void by this present decree: that 
also in all places where the cures shall be present- 
able by lay patrons, two shall be chosen in each, 
in order there to re-establish the same religious 



138 CHAPTER VIII. 

exercises : that the grants of benefices made during 
the late troubles, shall not cause any obstruction 
to the rights of the said patrons, who shall be 
replaced in the enjoyment of the same : that in 
those places in which Catholicism shall be re-es- 
tablished, the cemeteries shall be given up to its 
ministers : that the bishops and cures, and all other 
ecclesiastics, approved by the ordinaries of the 
district, shall be empowered without disturbance, 
to assist the sick, to celebrate the holy sacrifice, 
and exercise all other functions of their ministry, 
both in the houses of Catholics, and also in all 
other places where their worship is not publicly 
celebrated : that the bishops shall be restored to 
the possession of houses which had belonged to 
them before the seizure, (saissie,) as well as to 
their entire temporal and spiritual jurisdiction : 
that they shall be entitled to take out of the tithes 
of their dioceses, the produce requisite to furnish 
three thousand crowns for the bishop of Lescar, 
and eighteen hundred for the bishop of Oloron : 
that all Catholics inhabiting the country, shall be 
admitted to all sort of public duty and employ, 
without being subject to any exclusion on account 
of their religion : that it shall not be permitted to 
any person of either religion, to insult or provoke 
by injuries, or by means of disputes or religious 
controversies, which should be banished as opposed 



RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF ROMANISM. 139 

to the Holy Spirit: and that to such end, the 
ministers of either worship, who should fulfil the 
duty of preaching, should not be suffered to use 
any expression capable of exciting animosity, or 
wounding mutual charity between citizens, and so 
disturbing that peace which is the common benefit 
both of religion and the state.' 

Although the Navarrese had expected ever 
since the accession of their king to the throne of 
France, that a measure of this kind would be 
inflicted on them, yet the expectation appears to 
have had the effect of a menace, and rather to 
have excited a spirit of resistance than ofacqui- 
escence. Thirty years had elapsed since Protes- 
tantism had been the only recognized religion of 
the country, a period sufficient for its educational 
growth in two generations, and which, aided by 
the exertions of able ministers and the influence 
of favouring governors, had imbued the higher 
orders with congenial sentiments, and the lower 
with feelings of respect, for the doctrines and 
worship of the reformers. The reception of this 
decree, therefore, (which it could not be doubted, 
from the character of him who framed it, and of 
those who were its objects, was but the forerunner 
of aggression, if not a virtual abrogation of the 
privileges hitherto enjoyed,) caused an universal 
excitement in Beam. Most of the members of 



140 CHAPTER VIII. 

the council of state, of the leading families of the 
kingdom, as well as the chief amongst the clergy, 
assembled and addressed the marquis de Laforce, 
(who was still governor of Navarre,) expressing 
their alarm at the terms of the edict, and the 
danger they apprehended from its execution. The 
synod met and agreed on a memorial to the king. 
The estates were convened to consider the decree, 
since, by the constitution of the country, no edict 
of the sovereign was valid without their sanction. 
No direct opposition was offered by that assembly, 
but they, having first passed a resolution that the 
interests of the country were in danger, proceeded 
to debate on the financial part of the edict, by 
which tithes and other ecclesiastical property was 
re-appropriated, and diverted from the then cur- 
rent use. It was resolved, that these funds had 
by a former law and by long usage, been devoted 
to the maintenance of the Protestant clergy, and 
that no substitution was provided for them by the 
edict. This significant resolution, added to the 
remonstrances of the council and synod, drew 
from the king a modifying or rather explanatory 
decree soon after, and which was accompanied by 
a letter from his majesty to the council of state, 
in which he detailed the motives that had led him 
to issue the edict of Fontainbleau, and urged 
those which ought to induce obedience. This sup- 



EDICT OF FONTAINEBLEAU. 141 

plementary decree defined the places where the 
Romanists were to be restricted from intruding, 
viz., towns and parishes in which the Protestants 
had erected churches, and in which there was 
a minister paid by the state. But several excep- 
tions were appended, in which, notwithstanding 
this prohibition, Romanist worship might be in- 
troduced; and these were made in favour of 
several of the court party who possessed property 
or influence in the excepted places. To compen- 
sate the Protestants for the loss of their cemeteries, 
part of the public domains were to be granted to 
them for that purpose. Funeral ceremonies, 
processions of the host, &c. amongst the Romanists, 
in places where their worship was not re-esta- 
blished, were to be conducted without ostentation 
and parade. The spiritual jurisdiction of the 
bishops was particularly defined, and their tem- 
poral power was restricted to the seignories of 
their immediate residence. 

This concession on the part of the king, had a 
soothing effect on his loyal people. The estates 
despatched two of their body, the baron de Na- 
vailles, a Romanist, and M. Colombe, a Protestant, 
to Paris; to thank their sovereign, and to endea- 
vour to efface the impressions of disobedience, 
which their representations might have made. 
They were likewise instructed to pray his majesty, 



142 CHAPTER VIII. 

not to place in public employ, any individuals 
whose characters were suspected; a singular ap- 
plication, undoubtedly, but sufficiently understood 
by all parties, as alluding to those adverse to the 
Protestant institutions of the country. The object 
more immediately referred to, was the appoint- 
ment of M. Dupont to be advocate general, and 
president of the exchequer-chamber of Beam; 
that person, (though a Protestant,) being married 
to a zealous Romanist, who had rendered herself 
remarkable by many displays of contumely and 
opposition to Protestant regulations. The depu- 
tation proceeded to Paris, where, in a short time, 
Henry succeeded in persuading the Protestant 
member, Colombe, to conform to Romanism. 

The estates of Navarre perceiving that opposi- 
tion to the admission of the Romanists would be 
fruitless, took the opportunity of the truce of 
discussion with the king, to attend to the settle- 
ment of their Protestant institutions, and fortify 
them, as it were, against the approaching attack. 
The churches were ordered to be placed in thorough 
repair. The syndics, whose office it was to make 
circuits through the country once every year, to 
watch over the public institutions and remedy 
grievances, were ordered in future, to proceed on 
these missions thrice annually ; that is, every four 
months. Every precaution was taken to rectify 



EDICT OF FONTAINEBLEAU. 143 

and strengthen the religious institutions, while yet 
there was power in the hands of those favourable 
to them. Having thus prepared for the storm, 
they passed the edict of Fontainbleau, and sub- 
mitted to the will of God and their sovereign. 

Notwithstanding the acquiescence of the es- 
tates, the execution of the edict, on the part of 
the governor and council, was delayed on various 
pretexts. It was suggested that a period should 
be named for the presentation to benefices by lay 
Romanist patrons. Explanations were required 
as to the disposal of the Protestant schools in such 
benefices. Difficulties were started respecting 
the surrender of cemeteries ; since the Protestants 
gave up not only the prospect of interment for 
themselves in places habitually reverenced, but 
also the remains of their fathers, from whose 
family tombs they were to be excluded. It was, 
also, strongly urged by the Protestant ministers, 
that the indefinite description of ( tous autres ec- 
clesiastiques? in the allowance accorded of visiting 
the sick, &c. in places where there was no public 
Romish worship, might allow the Jesuits an en- 
trance, and they expressly protested against their 
admission. In the nomination of magistrates, 
the council further prayed, that the number of 
Romanists should not exceed that of Protestants, 
and that the cures and priests on admission, 



144 CHAPTER VIII. 

should be required to take an oath before the 
governor, to respect the laws and institutions of 
the country. One of the councillors of state was 
despatched by that body, to lay these several 
representations and remonstrances before the king. 
That monarch, to deprive the Navarrese of all 
pretext for further delay, acceded to the altera- 
tions required : the scholars were to be provided 
for ; the Jesuits were to be excluded ; the ceme- 
tries were to be common to the two religions; in 
short all was conceded, but, at the same time, 
peremptory orders were given for the immediate 
execution of the edict. 

On the 18th of August 1599, the two bishops 
of Beam, (Abbadie, bishop of Lescar, and Maytie, 
bishop of Oloron ; the latter the son of that May- 
tie who had caused the death of Roussel the Pro- 
testant bishop of the same see,) entered the king- 
dom, and performed the first mass in the church 
of Corlaas ; a seignory of the baron de Miossens, 
a bigotted Romanist, and who had been concerned 
in the conspiracy against the late queen, Jeanne 
d'Albret. Commissioners had been appointed by the 
governor to attend the bishops, and to watch the due 
execution of the new law. It appears that, in several 
towns, these commissioners were the only persons 
who formed a congregation at the new worship. 
But in the country parts, the ' old religion ' had 



EDICT OF FONTAINEBLEAU. 145 

many latent worshippers, who now came forth. 
It would seem, however, that the bishops were 
not much encouraged by the reception they met 
with ; for shortly after taking possession of their 
sees, they both quitted Beam for Chamberry, in 
Savoy, where the king of France and Navarre 
then was. Their object was, as is acknowledged 
by the historians of their party, to obtain from 
the king additional powers to overcome the resist- 
ance they met with* They did not meet with a 
very favourable reception ; and, therefore, instead 
of taking Protestantism by assault, they were 
compelled to proceed by the more usual mode of 
mining, and the lengthened process of siege. 
They were more successful with their priestly bre- 
thren in France, who raised a sum of money, by 
which the Bearnoise bishops were enabled to send 
missionaries into Navarre, to expedite its subju- 
gation. The only aid the king afforded them, was 
empowering them to resume possession of their 
alienated temporalities, on repayment of the price 
given to those who acquired a title by purchase, 
during the period of Protestant rule. These tem- 
poralities had been sold in difficult times, and 
under peculiar circumstances, which caused them 
to be purchased at very low rates, and considera- 
bly under their value. But the resumption, after 
so long a possession, was considered unjust by the 



146 CHAPTER VIII. 

possessors, and the council of state joined in that 
opinion. The king, however, ratified the power 
conferred on the bishops. The parties threatened 
with dispossession, petitioned the estates of the 
realm. The estates concurred with the council 
of state, and the question came again before the 
king, who contrived to temporize without coining 
to an immediate decision. Encouraged by the 
apparent success of remonstrance on this occasion, 
the synod drew up a statement of grievances, and 
despatched two of their body, Brasselay and 
Disserote, to lay it before their sovereign. These 
grievances not only embodied that just alluded 
to, but others, such as the violation of the edict 
of Fontainebleau by the intrusion of the Jesuits, 
by placing Romanist teachers in the parish schools, 
and by the non-observance by the priests, of the 
localities to which they had been restricted. A 
particular grievance of the latter kind, which 
excited the Protestant community, was that the 
bishop of Oloron had established the mass, in a 
parish of which the patron and minister were of 
the reformed faith, notwithstanding their remon- 
strances. All these acts of aggression took place 
within five months of the re-establishment of the 
Romish worship. The Navarrese council had in- 
terposed its arrets, but the king, by the advice 
of the French priesthood, nullified the judgments 



EDICT OF FONTAINEBLEAU. 147 

of the council, and left the complaints of the 
synod unsatisfied, except with vague promises. 

The two religions were now in the field, ranged, 
as it were, against each other. The Protestants 
had the country on their side, and the authorities 
(the local authorities) were members of their own 
body. The Romanists were supported by the 
royal power and a consciousness that if they acted 
with common prudence, they would obtain its 
fullest assistance. Thus circumstanced, although 
the graver and better order of both parties refrain- 
ed from any openly aggressive act, yet collisions 
frequently occurred, and kept alive a discordancy 
which effectually prevented that union which the 
king vainly, and, it may be added, ignorantly 
expected. The synod of Gap, in Provence, (to 
which the Bearnoise church sent deputies,) had 
declared, in a public document, that the pope was 
antichrist. This the king ordered to be expunged 
from the acts of the synod. In Beam the zealous 
newly-arrived priests proclaimed from their pulpits 
that no one could be saved out of the " Catholic " 
church. This the council of state at Pau took up, 
and reprimanded the assertors of the anti-union 
dogma. The superstitious and almost pagan ob- 
servance of days, especially of May-day (a floral 
fete which might be rendered one of sublime 
interest, particularly in the delicious climate of 

H 2 



148 CHAPTER VIII. 

Beam) was reintroduced by those of the Roman 
faith, and caused great offence to their reformed 
neighbours. The reprobation they met with from 
the latter, and the attempts made to put them 
down, caused disputes which ultimately came 
before the royal seat of judgment, by which these 
observances were not only sustained, but a sort of 
" Book of Sports " published, in the shape of new 
edicts. The shelter which the confessional afford- 
ed to criminal or invidious designs, became also a 
subject of reprobation, and led in several instances 
to open rupture. The Romanists complained 
likewise of not being admitted to an equality of 
office with the Protestants, pursuant to the new 
laws. This the king at first vainly endeavoured 
to obviate, since as the greater number of muni- 
cipal offices and the representatives to the estates, 
were elected by the people, who, especially in the 
towns, were generally Protestants, they could not 
be compelled to elect those of the Roman party. 
To remedy this alleged evil, the king decreed that 
the election of more than half the number of 
Jurats, &c. of the same communion should be 
invalid. But here again arose fresh sources of 
discussion. One of the Protestant Jurats of the 
town of Lescar was converted to the Roman faith. 
The Bearnoise council of state directed that his 
post should be considered vacant and another 



EDICT OF FONTAINEBLEAU. 149 

Protestant Jurat be elected. This was violently 
opposed by the Romanists, who, as usual, ap- 
pealed to the king, and an edict shortly came forth 
decreeing, that 'if any person, while in office, 
should forsake the pretended reformed faith, the 
original election should still remain valid.' 

Such were some of the many discordances arising 
from the attempt to join light and darkness. 
Would a chemist endeavour to unite dissimilar 
substances, except for the purpose of neutraliza- 
tion or combustion ? But union was not the 
object of those who professed this endeavour to 
unite. A vantage ground was required, and the 
approach to obtain it could only be acquired by 
holding out the white flag, and advancing under 
its peaceable professions. The result will soon 
appear. 



CHAPTER IX. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSION. DEATH OF HENRY IV. 

Six years had elapsed since Romanism had been 
re-established in Navarre. During that period 
the Protestants had been kept in a continued 
state of anxious watchfulness for the preservation 
of their institutions. The college of Orthez was 
that at which the students for the ministry were 
educated. This fountain-head was now attempted 
to be closed. The professors were diminished, the 
salaries of all lower ed, and the students deprived 
of their resources and limited to the number of 
thirty. The library of the college was closed, as 
affording too easy an access to the ( poison ' of Pro- 
testant reasoning. At the same time the king 
directed that wherever there was a Protestant 
church, a Romanist place of worship should like- 
wise be opened. This was a direct violation of 
the edict of Fontainebleau, but it was favouring 
the ' equality ' of the two religions. 



ROMAN-CATHOLIC MISSION. 151 

Amongst other grievances against which the 
Protestants in vain appealed, was the violation of 
the Sabbath-day and of the appointed fasts, by 
the Romanists. During the uninterrupted reign 
of reform, these periods of worship and solemnity 
were duly reverenced ; the shops were shut and 
public business suspended. Even for some time 
subsequent, the laws and customs of the country 
in this respect were enforced on all. But the 
Romanists now began to resist, and obtained a 
royal order for their exemption from the observ- 
ance required. 

By these means the priests were enabled to 
establish themselves in many places from which 
they had been long excluded. But the number of 
the Roman clergy was yet small. To remedy this 
deficiency, the pope (Paul V.) at the request, as is 
affirmed, of the French court, despatched a body 
of missionaries from Italy to convert the yet lin- 
gering Bearnoise. These missionaries were, Za- 
charie Colombe, (whom it may be remembered, 
had been the Protestant deputy from the Navar- 
rese estates, and who was now a monk of the 
Barnabite order at Milan,) Maurice Olgiatti, and 
another monk Louis Bitorte. Colombe was a 
native of Beam, and though his family were of the 
reformed faith, yet he had become a violent bigot 
to that which he now professed. These three 



152 CHAPTER IX. 

brethren arrived in Beam in July 1606. Their 
arrival had been held forth to the people, as a 
mission from heaven, and every means employed 
to give it effect. The bishops and clergy met them 
on the frontier and led them onward to the field of 
exertion with triumphal display. The place 
selected for their first effort was a small country 
town, about eight leagues from the frontier and 
nearly as many from Pau. This place, Luc, which 
had then about two thousand inhabitants, was in 
the centre of a Romanist district, and within a 
short distance of Corlaas, where the first mass had 
been performed in 1599, but the parish church 
was still in the possession of the Protestants. 
Colombe has described the scene of his first effort 
in this place, in a letter which he addressed to 
Cavalchini, the General of the Barnabites. ' At 
our arrival in Beam,' says he, ' the Catholic church 
appeared to us like a feeble patient, who had lost 
nearly all his blood, through the murderous attack 
of robbers, and who, covered with wounds, appears in 
a state, in which he sometimes sinks under his suf- 
ferings, that are rendered worse by the pestiferous 
odours he is compelled to breathe, and sometimes 
a little revived, raises himself up and gives hope of 
a happy recovery. All the monasteries and reli- 
gious houses, all places consecrated to piety, have 
been pulled down and destroyed ; given up to 



ROMAN-CATHOLIC MISSION. 153 

flames, they only present heaps of ashes and ruins. 
Two monks of the order of St. Francis, who had 
escaped from the sword of the persecutor which 
immolated so many victims of their order, and 
who survived till this time, were the only remains 
in this country. One was concealed at Juraneon, 1 
the other at Oloron. Two Jesuits had preached 
at the former place the preceding year, with the 
permission of the council of state, who, however, 
forbad them to confess. They had, however, left 
the province, since the governor and all in autho- 
rity, rooted in Calvinism, made themselves merry 
with mimicking their discourses, gesture, and 
accent, watching, at the same time, if any phrase, 
offensive to the ears of heresy, escaped them, 
being resolved, in such cases, to punish them.' 
After thus describing the abasement of Romanism, 
the missionary proceeds to describe his own 
triumphs. He mentions his arrival at Luc, where, 
as no place sufficiently large could be procured for 
worship, the bishop of Oloron had an altar erected, 
under a pavilion formed of the branches of trees, 
and placed in an extensive meadow. A day was 
appointed for the consecration of this rustic tem- 
ple, and notice given to all the country round. 
1 The bishop, dressed in his pontifical robes, and 

1 A suburb of the town of Pau, the capital of Beam. 
H 5 



154 CHAPTER IX. 

followed by the priests and laymen of his church, 
commenced a procession from the town. One part 
of those who attended the preaching of the minis- 
ter of Luc followed the procession. The others, 
astonished at this novel spectacle, stood wondering 
and indecisive, and at last joined with the throng, 
while the chief people of their party, stood at the 
windows of their houses, full of hate and rage, 
vomiting forth a thousand blasphemies.' 

The bishop performed his part. * After the 
credo,' continues Colombe, ' I stood on a platform, 
and the people sat down on the herbage of the 
meadow, with their heads uncovered, and exposed 
to the glowing rays of the sun. I took for the 
subject of my discourse, the erection of this rustic 
altar. I recalled to my hearers the golden age of 
Christianity. I set before their eyes the absurdity 
of a heresy which assumes the name of reform. I 
dare not, said I to them, to draw your attention, 
compare myself to St. Paul in the glory of his 
apostleship ; but I can say to you that I have a 
juster title than he had to be called the least of the 
apostles; that I have persecuted the church of 
God, in calumniating her doctrines with the deceit- 
ful allegations of the new sect, in which I had been 
brought up, as you have been, and from the dark 
abyss of which I have been drawn by the vivifying 
influence of that light which dispels the darkness 



ROMAN-CATHOLIC MISSION. 155 

of men. This same light I am bringing to shine 
upon you. It is from the voice of that visible 
authority which is vouchsafed us here below, l and 
unites knowledge with power, that I have received 
this mission, and that I am come, without taking 
counsel either of flesh or blood, to restore you 
to the Christian faith, which has been so disfigured 
by the systems of unbelief. I then, in few words, 
opened to the people the rules and fundamental 
doctrines of the Catholic faith. I made them feel 
the dreadful yoke they were under, and the bar- 
barity and impiety of their new masters, who had 
overturned their altars, destroyed their monas- 
teries, broken their images, and profaned the 
churches and the tombs of their ancestors. I 
shewed them to what profane purposes the stones 
of their church and ancient abbey had been ap- 
plied, how their parish church had been changed 
into a temple, where the holy God to whom it 
was consecrated, was accused by Calvin, their 
leader, of being the author of sin and of the dam- 
nation of sinners. I recalled to their memory the 
many injuries and outrages to which, for the last 
forty years, they had been victims, and the ruinous 
imposts which they had been forced to pay to this 
tyrannical sect. I carried them back to its origin. 

1 The Pope. 



156 CHAPTER IX. 

I led them to observe how it had been born and 
nursed in France, and yet had infected Beam more 
than any other province. Trust not, I cried to 
them, trust not in these innovators ; they are felse 
prophets who clothe themselves in sheepskin in 
order more easily to devour the souls of the faith- 
ful. Heresy, I added, like a torrent ravages your 
cities, your fields, your families and property ; but 
this torrent becomes less and less, like a brook 
which hardly flows, and will change at last into a 
lifeless lake, where its stagnant waters repose in 
slimy impurity. The Catholic church is a vessel 
which may indeed be tossed by the tempest, but 
which can never be wrecked. She has the war- 
ranty of the word of Jesus Christ. The ancient 
heresies have verified the promise, and those of 
our days are already beginning to afford a new 
proof. This is the moment of your liberty. Ren- 
der God thanks for it; cleanse yourselves inter- 
nally in the sight of this altar which has been con- 
secrated before your eyes ; purify your souls by 
confession ; wash yourselves in the waters of peni- 
tence ; return with sincerity to the faith, and walk 
in the path of salvation which is opened to you.' 

Such was the style of address which a Protes- 
tant apostate, sanctioned by the pope's ball and 
the king's commission, ventured to deliver. The 
note of war was plainly sounded and the banner of 



ROMAN-CATHOLIC MISSION. 157 

enlistment boldly raised. Was this the Utopian 
unity that Henry IV. desired to effect ? 

The three missionaries had divided the country 
between them, and proceeded with a triumphant 
air, throughout the land, under the protection of 
the king's mandate. As might have been ex- 
pected and, probably desired, the great excite- 
ment of their progress occasioned various commo- 
tions. At Lescar the procession of the Fete Dieu 
was broken and dispersed, the bishop of that see 
being compelled to fly from the town. Several 
other similar scenes of violence occurred, and such 
was the universal commotion that the estates which 
had met, as usual, in the month of August, 
remained sitting in permanence. They despatched 
deputies to the king at Paris to represent the state 
of the country, and the encroachments daily mak- 
ing on their privileges and institutions, praying 
that the measures latterly adopted by the crown 
respecting religion might be stayed. l 

The reply to these representations and requests 
was sufficiently declarative of the arbitrary and 
anti-protestant designs of the court. The estates 
were forbidden to discuss matters of religion, nor 
was any one to be allowed to petition that body on 

1 It is remarkable that one of these deputies was the Syndic 
Colombe, a Protestant, and brother of the Romish missionary of 
that name. 



158 CHAPTER IX. 

any point connected with it. All causes, arising 
from or depending upon, religious differences, 
were, in future, to be carried on at the expence 
of the parties, and not of the public or state, 
unless his majesty should think fit to direct other- 
ivise. It was also enjoined in the estates and 
synod, that in the future, no deputation should be 
sent to the king, without permission previously 
obtained from his majesty; and that the request 
preferred for sending such deputation, should 
express clearly and fully the objects for which it 
was sent. The obvious purpose (certainly the 
effect) of these regulations and prohibitions, was 
to prevent redress by stifling complaint, and, to 
induce a kind of resigned indifference amongst the 
Protestants, to the advance of popery, by the con- 
scious hopelessness of their condition. 

The advanced guard of missionaries was soon 
followed by a more regular body. The Jesuits 
had been recalled to France in 1604 by Henry, 
and now, in 1607, they were permitted to re-enter 
Beam, contrary to the express stipulation of the 
edict of Fontainebleau. In vain were protesta- 
tions made at these successive encroachments ; 
they only hurried on measures for silencing oppo- 
sition. 

The synod of Beam endeavoured to stem the 
torrent pouring in upon them. The restriction of 



ROMAN-CATHOLIC MISSION. 159 

the number of students for the reformed church, 
to thirty, when above four hundred parishes had to 
be supplied with ministers, and the diminution, as 
well as uncertain payment, of their salaries, had 
caused a dearth of labourers in the vineyard. This 
obliged the synod to concentrate their efforts, by 
uniting several parishes into one, while at the same 
time, they endeavoured to raise funds for avoiding 
this weakening of their lines. The ministers of 
their church were interdicted from entering into 
public disputations with the Roman priests, with- 
out previous permission of the synod. All mem- 
bers of the reformed communion were called upon 
to refrain from attending the masses and sermons 
of the Romish priests ; to prevent their children 
from attending schools opened by the latter, and 
not to be misled, through a false liberality, into 
aiding the efforts of the church of Rome. Lay 
patrons also, of the reformed faith were exhorted 
not to present the Romish clergy to their bene- 
fices. To these, and other regulations of a similar 
tendency, the synod added general protests against 
the encroaching nature of the public measures, 
and, especially, against the intrusion of the priests 
into parishes and churches exclusively protestant. 

These proceedings were as ineffectual as the 
mandate of Canute :. the tide continued to roll in. 
The missionaries gained possession of the church 



160 CHAPTER IX. 

at Luc. They extended their conquests on all 
sides. When they encountered resistance of too 
aggressive a nature, the redress they obtained at 
the royal hand, was more than commensurate with 
the evil suffered, and not only compensated the 
check, but aided their advance. While the mis- 
sionaries and priests worked above ground, the 
Jesuits worked under ground. A prudential regard 
for their own interests and none for those of their 
opponents, regulated their proceedings; for the 
dread and doubtfulness of a simultaneous assault, 
seems to have been the only reason why the Pro- 
testant institutions were not at once laid low. 

While this unhappy contest was thus proceed- 
ing, he, who commenced it, was summoned to his 
dread account in another world. In 1610 Henry 
IV. of France was murdered by a priest of that 
communion which he had forsaken Protestantism 
to embrace. 

Henry had reigned thirty-eight years over the 
kingdom of Navarre, his birth-place. His easy 
sociable temper, his brave and spirited conduct in 
the field, while at the head of his Navarrese protes- 
tants, had endeared him to his countrymen, who 
hailed in his personal excellence, a worthy suc- 
cessor of Marguerite de Valois and Jeanne 
d'Albret. But during the last twenty years of his 
reign he became a stranger to his native country . 



DEATH OF HENRY IV. 161 

he forsook the religion of his people ; he reversed 
the decrees of his maternal predecessor, whose 
name was associated with the institution of that 
religion, and the best interests of the country ; he 
broke up the established order and the peaceful 
unity which time had so happily produced, and 
this in opposition to his own solemn declaration, 
to his people's urgent appeals, and to his sainted 
mother's dying entreaty! It will scarcely be urged 
that a deep and settled conviction of religious 
truth led the libertine and inconstant monarch to 
attempt these changes. Nor will it be asserted 
that the violation of a solemn engagement or a 
disguised mode of acting, are consistent with any 
religious conviction. The edict of Fontainebleau 
was a solemn pledge to a certain course of pro- 
ceeding. It was a declaration and guarantee of 
privilege. But it was used merely as a shield, 
behind which an inimical advance might with more 
security be made. The crown of France (at least 
the undisputed enjoyment of it,) was the price 
that Henry received for his second apostacy ; but 
the crown of Navarre was already his, and by the 
strongest of titles, since he was the son and heir of 
Jeanne d'Albret. There was no obvious necessity 
for a religious change in his countrymen, because 
their sovereign had changed his religious profes- 
sion; nor since Protestantism, even in France, 



162 CHAPTER IX. 

was recognized and protected by the state, could 
there exist any conscientious reason for denying 
the Bearnoise people as a nation, what was guaran- 
teed to every Protestant individual in the realm. 

Had Henry the Fourth of France adhered to 
the scriptural religion he was brought up in ; had 
he trusted in the God who, that religion must 
have taught him, never forsakes those who sin- 
cerely obey him ; what a different aspect might 
the continent of Europe, nay the whole world, 
have exhibited at this day ! Had the crown of 
France been lost through adherence to principle, 
that principle would have gained popular impor- 
tance, and the sacrifice have constituted a legiti- 
mate claim to the title of great. Navarre, as a 
Protestant kingdom, under such a king, would 
have upheld, and been reciprocally supported by, 
the Protestants of France ; their cause must have 
gained, as it had gained, a more extensive hold 
on that nation, through the active maintenance 
of its enlightened doctrines. Had Henry the 
Fourth acquired a firm seat in the throne of 
France, without a change of religion, what a wide 
extent of prospect opens ! But, these are vain 
speculations, — he reigned as a Romanist, and died 
such, on the 14th of May, 1610. 



CHAPTER X. 

LOUIS XIII. CONFIRMATION OF THE EDICT OF 
FONTAINEBLEAU. GRIEVANCES OF THE PROTES- 
TANTS. 

Louis Xlllth, the son of Henry, was in his 
tenth year only, when he succeeded to the crowns 
of France and Navarre. His mother, Mary de 
Medicis, the hereditary opponent of Protestantism, 
obtained the regency of these states ; but the 
Protestants of the two countries were a numerous 
and powerful body, and it was, consequently, ex- 
pedient to retain them in peaceable subjection. 
One of the earliest measures, therefore, of the 
Regent, was to confirm the edicts of Nantes and 
Fontainebleau, and to grant permission for the 
representatives of the Reformed church to meet 
in general assembly. These periodical meetings 
had been of most essential service to the reformed 
religion, by the union of interests and the mutual 
aid, which the knowledge of each others' grievances 



164 CHAPTER X. 

enabled them to afford. For this reason, Henry 
IV. had interdicted this assemblage, without his 
previous concurrence ; a favour readily obtained, 
when the assembly had no point of interest to 
discuss, but more generally withheld from dis- 
trust of consequences. 

The pope, (Paul V.) was highly displeased 
at the yielding disposition of the Regent. Henry 
IV. had declared the edict of Nantes, to be 
" irrevocable et perpetuelle" and the holy Father 
was moved to anger, that the new sovereign 
should be led to adhere to the solemn engagement 
of his parent and predecessor. But the regent 
despatched a confidential messenger to Rome, to 
disavow the charge of sincerity, declaring that 
the apparent concessions were only specious — 
' d'arreter quelques esprits brouillons et inquiets.' 
The truth of the assertion was shortly proved. 

The general assembly of the Protestant church 
of France, consisting of ministers and laymen, 
(anciens or elders), from the fifteen districts into 
which that church was divided, met, after much 
delay, at Saumur, on the 25th of May, 1611. 
To this assembly Beam sent four deputies, in 
addition to the governor of Navarre, the marquis 
de la Force, who had been elected a deputy by 
the province of Guienne. The most sanguine ex- 
pectations were excited throughout the protes- 



GRIEVANCES OF THE PROTESTANTS. 165 

tant community, respecting the advantages to be 
derived from this religious congress. Much had 
been endured ; much was to be remedied. The 
hopes, which always attend a new reign, were not 
entirely dissipated, although various instances had 
occured of contravention of the edicts of privi- 
lege, so recently confirmed : only a few months 
after the death of Henry, the bishop of Lescar 
in Beam had triumphantly obtained possession 
of his cathedral, and had re-established his autho- 
rity in full exercise. The Jesuits, also, presuming 
on the favour of the court, had effected an entry 
into Beam, and having procured a royal ordinance 
interdicting the protestants from having more than 
one school of their communion in each place, the 
proselyting Fathers filled up the vacant ground 
with their own scholastic institutions. 

These and other grievances were laid before the 
congress at Saumur, which had elected the Mare- 
chal de Bouillon (a nobleman of considerable 
political influence,) as president. But amongst 
the other deputies at Saumur, was one from the 
queen regent, who had commissioned him to 
proceed thither to gain over adherents to the 
court. This individual was La Yarenne, valet- 
de-chambre to the king. The character and sta- 
tion of this agent, as well as the object of his 
mission, peculiarly illustrate the views of the 



166 CHAPTER X. 

court, and the opinion entertained of those of 
the protestant party. But the regent was not 
entirely ignorant of all she had to deal with : for 
La Varenne was so successful as to purchase the 
treachery of the president, de Bouillon. Through 
his medium, the regent was informed of the de- 
signs and secret proceedings of the assembly, 
which he contrived to lead into discussions that 
would afford occasion to the interference of the 
court. Separate statements of grievances, requir- 
ing redress, were ultimately drawn up by the 
assembly on the part of France, and that of 
Navarre, but before they could be laid before the 
government, the deputies were required by the 
regent to delegate their duties to a committee of 
six, (two of which were to be named by the 
crown,) and to dissolve the assembly. It was ac- 
cordingly dispersed on the 8th of September, after 
four months ineffectual labour, and the deputies 
separated, in the spirit of the advice given by 
one of their associates, the amiable du Plessis 
Mornay : l let 'us,' said he, ( then separate, and 
let each one leave here his animosities. It would 
only augment our evils to carry them with us. 
Let us endeavour to obtain by a respectful silence 
and a christian endurance, that which we cannot 
gain by our remonstrances/ 

The dissolution of the General Assembly was, 



GRIEVANCES OF THE PROTESTANTS. 167 

soon after, followed by an ordinance for the abo- 
lition of provincial meetings or synods. This, in 
effect, was an abrogation of church government. 
It was an open declaration of the ultimate design 
of the court. 

A general expression of indignation could not 
be repressed. The Navarrese protestants had not 
been included in the restriction of synods, and 
the synod of Pau was sitting at the time this edict 
was published. They immediately despatched one 
of their body, M. Duprat, to the queen, to protest 
against the extension of the ordinance to B^arn, 
and to remonstrate generally against the progres- 
sive encroachments of the Romanists. Duprat 
acquitted himself of this mission with consummate 
skill and prudence. Knowing that the cause he 
advocated would carry no weight with it, he applied 
himself to obtain personal friends and private fa- 
vour, and succeeded in obtaining not alone fair 
promises, but a gratuity of twelve hundred livres, 
for the support of the'reformed church at Navarre, 
and an order for the immediate payment of the 
arrears due to its ministers. The queen regent 
also addressed a letter to the synod of Beam, in 
which she promised security for their religion and 
privileges, and claimed their fidelity as subjects 
in return. 

The motive of these gracious measures was ob- 



168 CHAPTER X. 

vious. The protestant party in France threatened 
at that time an appeal to arms. The military 
heads of that party had met at Grenoble and at 
Tonneins, in the western side of France, the depu- 
tation from the churches were assembled. To 
this latter body the protestants of Navarre sent 
four deputies. They were well aware that their 
hope of existence, as a religious body, solely de- 
pended on an union with their brethren in France, 
and that the professions made by the court were 
only intended to prevent such accordance. During 
the last twenty years they had seen the govern- 
ment of France persevering in a series of depriva- 
tion of privileges, and aiding the advance of Ro- 
manism, notwithstanding the edicts it had issued, 
and the professions it made. The assembly at 
Tonneins had been convoked, under royal per- 
mission, to name a new committee of deputies to 
succeed those appointed at Saumur. The refusal 
of this permission would have thrown on the 
court the charge of instigating the protestants to 
a more urgent mode of demand ; and the grant of 
it was accepted by the protestants as the last they 
might expect. It was used accordingly. 

The two assemblies at Tonniens and Grenoble 
adjourned to Nismes, the centre of French pro- 
testantism. Articles of union between the French 
and Navarrese churches were agreed on, and mea- 



GRIEVANCES OF THE PROTESTANTS. 169 

tures of defence taken. At that period (1616) the 
court of France had thrown off the mask with 
respect to protestantism. An alliance with Spain, 
and the destruction of heresy, had been resolved 
on ; but the detail of these political circumstances 
belongs to the history of France, which is replete 
with facts exculpatory of the nature of the defence 
which the French and Navarrese protestants were 
forced to adopt. 

The duke de Rohan raised a body of armed 
protestants, and marching to the banks of the 
Dordogne, was joined by the marquis de Laforce, 
the governor of Beam. Their object was to op- 
pose the passage of the king to Bordeaux, where 
he was going to celebrate his union with the in- 
fanta of Spain. The king, however, arrived at 
Bordeaux by sea. The synod of Pau thought it 
more consistent with their character to remonstrate 
peaceably, and accordingly, despatched two of 
their body to the king at Bordeaux. They were 
well received, but Laforce was deprived of his 
government. The Bearnoise, however, retained 
the marquis in his post, which he had so long and 
ably filled, and enabled him to raise troops for the 
maintainance of the peace and institutions of the 
country. 

In February 1617, a conference between the 
king's party and that of the prince de Conde, the 
i 



170 CHAPTER X. 

chief of the reformed, led to a peace. But Beam, 
and its affairs, were not included in this negocia- 
tion ; a desire of self-security led the prince to 
avoid entangling himself with other matters than 
his own. A similar spirit, it is to be feared, 
caused the French synod of Vitre, subsequently 
assembled, to decline receiving deputies from 
Beam. The Navarrese were thus left, as it were, 
at the feet of the king; while the Romanists of 
that kingdom seized the moment for urging on 
the court the immediate realization of their wishes. 
The Romish members of the estates of Navarre 
petitioned the king to unite the two countries of 
France and Navarre under the same laws, and to 
re-establish the Roman catholic worship in its 
ancient lustre. This proceeding roused increased 
effort on the part of the protestants. An extra- 
ordinary synod was assembled at Pau ; the council 
of state drew up arguments against the petition, 
and meetings of the most influential of the re- 
formed party were held. Representations and 
resolutions were forwarded to the government, 
and the ardent feeling of the people expressed in 
every possible way. All was vain. The recent 
peace with the Huguenots of France, and their 
desertion of their brethren in Navarre, was an 
opportunity not to be neglected. On the 25th of 
June, 1617, Louis XIII. signed an edict at Fon- 



GRIEVANCES OF THE PROTESTANTS. 171 

tainbleau, directing that the Roman Catholic re- 
ligion should be re-established in every town, 
village, and locality in Navarre, and that full and 
entire restoration should be made to the bishops 
and clergy of that church of all tithes, lands, rents, 
and other possessions heretofore held by them. 
The exercise of protestant worship was neverthe- 
less allowed, and the sum of seventy-sight thou- 
sand crowns allowed, out of the surplus revenue 
of the state, for the support of its ministers. Now 
the sum allowed to the Romanist clergy in Beam, 
by the government, since their entry, by virtue of 
the first edict of Fontainebleau, was twenty-four 
thousand crowns ; so that it would appear, even 
supposing the same scale of remuneration to be 
allowed to both communions, that the protestants 
were more than thrice the number of the Roman- 
ists. This sudden overthrow of the religious 
establishment of the great majority of the people, 
consequently excited great commotion. An 
assembly of the chief persons in Beam took place 
at Orthez, by whom Paul Lescun, a counsellor of 
state, and a man of great talent and of deserved 
popularity, was deputed to personally entreat the 
king to re-consider the decree. Lescun, who ex- 
celled as an orator, pleaded the cause of his country 
with energy and judgment, but the utmost he 
could obtain was the extension of the period for 
I 2 



172 CHAPTER X. 

the resumption of ecclesiastical property, till the 
February following, but the immediate installation 
of the Romish clergy was peremptorily ordered. 
The estates of Beam refused to register this edict. 
The government declared that the two nations of 
France and Navarre were united, and that the 
registry of the edict in any other court of the 
crown domain was sufficient. It was accordingly 
verified and registered by the parliament of Bor- 
deaux and Thoulouse. 

The crown and the people were now at issue ; 
the people referred the case to the highest tri- 
bunal. A day of fasting and prayer was ap- 
pointed to be simultaneously observed in all the 
Protestant churches of Navarre. How many fer- 
vent petitions for guidance by infinite wisdom, 
how many earnest appeals to the ruler of kings, 
must have been breathed forth on that day. 
Shortly after that act of solemn devotion, another 
great national meeting was held at Orthez, at 
which it was resolved to make a final appeal to the 
king and his cabinet. These reiterated, peace- 
able, but firm expostulations, show the deep and 
Christian feeling of this persecuted people. An 
address was despatched to the sovereign in the name 
of the assembly. The king refused to receive it ! 

On the 9th of June 1618, Renard, a commis- 
sary of the king, arrived at Pau, with a large 



GRIEVANCES OF THE PROTESTANTS. 173 

retinue of followers, and accompanied by the 
bishop of Lescar, commissioned to superin- 
tend the execution of the edicts in favour 
of the Romanists. At the same time a depu- 
tation of ministers of the Reformed church, 
the syndics of Beam, and the chiefs of the coun- 
try, laid a protest before the council of state at 
Pau, against the execution of those edicts. Renard 
declared the council incompetent to receive or 
judge such protest. The council thought other- 
wise, and not only received the protest, but on the 
29th of June, decided that they could not allow 
Renard to execute the edict, in respect of the 
resumption of ecclesiastical property, or the forced 
replacing of Romish worship. This decision was 
received by the people with enthusiastic joy. 
Since the arrival of the royal commissioner, 
crowds of Protestants from all parts of the pro- 
vince had hastened to Pau, anxious for the result 
of the Protest. The scholars from Orthez were 
particularly noticed. They wore in their caps a 
fox's tail, in allusion to the name of the Romanist 
agent Renard. The fashion became general. 
Insults were heaped upon the unwelcome visitant, 
and such was the furious delight of the mob at 
Pau, that he found it expedient to leave the town 
two days after the decision of the council. It is 
an evidence of the Anti-Romanist spirit of the 



174 CHAPTER X. 

Bearnoise people, that Renard found no resting- 
place of safety till he reached Dax on the Adour, 
beyond the confines of Beam, where he waited 
the orders of the king. The bishops of Lescar and 
Oloron, also, who had anticipated a triumphant 
installation into all their mitred honours, consi- 
dered it prudent to avoid the storm raised against 
them, and fled to Paris. 

The French cabinet was indignant at this oppo- 
sition, but took no steps for the forcible mainte- 
nance of its authority. The crooked and barbed 
weapons that had been generally used against the 
Protestants, directed with a steady and patient 
aim, had always been more effectual than the 
thundering rush of impatient anger, with the 
engines of the state. Renard, notwithstanding 
his name, was not considered a suitable agent for 
a second mission. He was therefore ordered to 
transmit his commission and papers to another 
agent of the court, who was a resident at Pau, 
Desquille, a counsellor of the Navarrese chancery. 
To this individual an additional edict of the 
French king was privately sent, which he was 
instructed to deliver to the governor and council 
of Navarre. Desquille quietly took measures for 
fulfilling this commission. He, unexpectedly, 
required an audience of the council, shewed his 
authority, and placing the royal edict in the hands 



GRIEVANCES OF THE PROTESTANTS. 175 

of the governor, suddenly retired, and mounting a 
horse, quitted Pau before the knowledge of his 
mission had transpired. 

This adroit, but undignified mode of communi- 
cating a royal order, is highly lauded by the Ro- 
manist historians, who appear to be either insen- 
sible to or regardless of the tyranny of forcing a 
change of religion on a people so generally and so 
strongly opposed to it, as the circumstance they 
narrate so clearly evinces. 

The edict which Desquille delivered to the 
authorities of Navarre, comprised the king's mo- 
tives, which he was thus pleased to state : f That 
in the re-establishment of the Catholic religion in 
Beam, and in the orders given for the restitution 
of ecclesiastical property, he principally proposed 
to relieve his conscience, which would not permit 
him any longer to leave the Catholics of that 
country in slavery, or their clergy and prelates 
labouring under the deprivation of their goods, 
so justly acquired by the donations of the faithful. 1 

1 At the sacre or coronation of the king, (Louis XIII.) the fol- 
lowing declaration was made by him : — * Je tacherai de bonne foi 
et selon mon pouvoir de chasser de ma jurisdiction et des terres 
de mon obeissance, les heretiques condemnes par l'Eglise.' This 
having excited much alarm amongst the Huguenots, Louis pub- 
lished another declaration on the 12th of May 1615, in which he 
promised to keep inviolably his engagements with them. But the 
bonne foi was better kept than the inviolable engagement. 



176 CHAPTER X. 

By so doing he fulfilled the will of his glorious 
father, who, frequently, previously to his decease, 
had expressed his regret that he had not been able 
to remedy those disorders. That one of his prin- 
cipal motives had, likewise, been to maintain peace 
and union amongst his subjects, which could not 
exist whilst the clergy were deprived of their just 
rights, of which they had been despoiled by the 
pretended reformers. That, however, far from 
maltreating these reformers, he had, by his indul- 
gence, removed all cause of complaint, and even 
furnished them with motives of gratitude, in pro- 
viding for their wants, and the support of their 
worship and ministers in a way that could leave 
them nothing to desire,' &c. Finally, the edict, 
after eulogizing the royal clemency, which led his 
majesty ' rather to act like a father who pardons, 
than a judge who punishes,' peremptorily directs 
the registering and execution of his edicts. 

This mandate met with no better reception than 
its predecessor. The peeple appeared to throw 
aside all apprehension of consequences in the 
ardour of enthusiasm for their cause. The synod 
of Beam endeavoured to soothe down public feel- 
ing, from the wildness of heat and clamour, into a 
firm and steadfast principle, and to strengthen 
men's minds by the spirit of that religion whose 
form they contended for. A solemn fast had been 






GRIEVANCES OF THE PROTESTANTS. 177 

held on the 1st of March previous; another was 
now appointed for the 1st of July. The national 
association at Orthez continued its sittings. The 
press teemed with productions called forth by the 
spirit of the times. Amongst these works one 
was particularly distinguished. It was entitled, 
1 Apologie des eglises Reformers, de Vobeisance du 
Hoi et des Etats de Beam, pour justifier les oppo- 
sitions par eux formies contre la main levee des 
biens ecclesiastiques." It was written by Jean 
Paul de Lescun, who had been deputed by the 
national assembly at Orthez the preceding year, 
(1617) to remonstrate against the measures of the 
crown. While at Paris on that occasion, he had 
published two other works on the same exciting 
topic, which had attracted much attention. The 
one ' Avis d'un Gentilhomme? &c, was a summary 
of arguments, and the other, l Memoires sur les 
opposition aux pourmite des Eveques,' &c, a nar- 
rative of events connected with these edicts, and 
the hostile proceedings of the court against the 
Protestant religion. 

However the people might view the edicts and 
intentions of the king, it was necessary that the 
local government should treat them with decorous 
respect. There appears to have been great diffi- 
culty in determining how to effect this consistently 
with their judgment, and the feeling of the coun- 
I 5 



178 CHAPTER X. 

try. But after two month's delay, the council of 
Navarre made a humble representation to his 
majesty, recapitulating the fundamental laws of 
the kingdom, under which it was necessary that 
they should proceed, and stating that the several 
parties affected by the edicts, would be required 
to state their respective demands and objections 
previous to registering, and, consequently, execu- 
ting those decrees. 

The political condition of France at this period, 
appears to have prevented the king from pursuing 
the measure with any vigour. This relaxation 
encouraged the Navarrese. The synod which met 
at Pau on the 15th of April 1619, came to an 
unanimous resolution to stand fast to their rights, 
which had been bestowed on them by Jeanne 
d'Albret, and had been ratified by Henry IV., 
and by the queen-regent at the commencement of 
the present reign. This declaration was signed by 
all the nobility and gentry of the Protestant faith 
assembled at Orthez. 

At this period (23rd May,) the general assem- 
bly of the French Protestant church met at 
Loudun. Lescun was deputed by the Bearnoise 
synod to attend it, and with his accustomed energy 
and eloquence, pressed on the assembly, and suc- 
ceeded in obtaining their vote for a petition to the 
king, for the repeal of his edict for the re-estab- 



GRIEVANCES OF THE PROTESTANTS. 179 

lishment of the Romish church in Beam. It was 
presented to the king at Chantilly, but scornfully 
rejected, as were the remonstrances against other 
grievances. The assembly at Loudun came to a 
resolution, not to separate till their grievances 
were heard. They were commanded to dissolve 
the meeting before the 25th of January, 1620. 
This peremptory mandate roused the spirit of the 
Protestant party. Preparations were made for 
resistance, but the calmer counsels of Duplessis, 
Mornay, and others, prevailed. They separated 
without any result in April following. 

This suspension of effort on the part of the 
French Protestants, enabled the king to proceed 
with his designs against Beam. That province 
had become more calm in the expression, but not 
cooler in the degree of feeling. A new attack on 
their religion had, in some measure, diverted the 
attention of the people from the king's edicts, to 
the immediate agent of this fresh encroachment. 
Father Daniel, provincial of the Capuchins in 
Guienne, had ventured to proceed to Pau, and 
commence preaching. He was challenged to a 
theological discussion by M. Charles, the Protes- 
tant professor of divinity at Orthez, and the great 
hall of the Estates, in the Chateau de Pau, was as- 
signed for the controversy. The utmost interest was 
excited. Both disputants, of course, claimed the 



180 CHAPTER X. 

victory ; but without any deep critical enquiry, we 
may safely assign it to the Protestant champion, 
since Father Daniel, in his version of the discus- 
sion, complains that ' very few Catholics were 
admitted* 

While these controversies were going on in 
B£arn, the people were suddenly electrified with 
the intelligence that the king had arrived at Bor- 
deaux. The utmost alarm seized on all. The 
synod instantly met and despatched two deputies, 
(L'abbadie, the minister of Pau, and Desmarez,) 
to the assembly of the French church then sitting 
at Alais, to concert the measures to be adopted. 
The governor, the Marquis de la Force, and Cas- 
saux, president of the council, also set off to meet 
the king at Bordeaux. Louis immediately sent 
them back to Pau, with peremptory orders to 
return immediately with the act of registration of 
his late edicts, and despatched a confidential agent 
to report the proceedings. The statement sent to 
the king, by this agent, of the opposition and 
excitement of the mass of the people, determined 
him to proceed personally to Pau. He accor- 
dingly left Bordeaux, but was stopped at Grenade 
on the frontier of Beam, by some local difficulty. 
The knowledge of the king's approach at once 
determined the conduct of the council. The 
edicts were duly registered on the 8th of October, 



GRIEVANCES OF THE PROTESTANTS. 181 

1620. The Marquis de la Force set out imme- 
diately for Grenade with the act of registration, 
hoping to prevent the king from entering Beam, 
but the monarch would not be deterred, but pro- 
ceeded on his march. 

Louis XIII. entered Pau (the capital of the 
ancient domain of his family) on the 15th of Oc- 
tober. A gloomy silence accompanied his progress 
to the Chateau. No sort of display, on the part 
of his subjects, testified joy or a wish to shew 
respect. It was the entry rather of a foreign con- 
queror amongst a vanquished people, than the heir 
of their loved and honoured native dynasty. So 
manifestly adverse was the population, that the 
king only remained two days at Pau, proceeding 
on to Navarrenx. This town was the only strong 
place in Beam, and contained as its garrison, the 
sole corps of regular troops. These troops had 
participated in the expression of feeling against 
the king's edicts, especially on hearing of his arri- 
val at Bordeaux, and there appeared to be some 
doubt whether they would accede to the royal will 
so readily as the people of Pau had done. The 
king, therefore, sent forward a regiment of his- 
body guard under the count de Schomberg, to 
precede him to Navarre. The count was received 
by the governor, Desales, who, being informed 
that etiquette required him to advance to meet 



182 CHAPTER X. 

the king, left the fortress at the head of the chief 
part of the garrison. Schomberg immediately 
seized on the gates, and held the city for the king. 
Desales was rewarded for his acquiescing sim- 
plicity, by being deprived of his government. 
Similar precautions were taken to secure Orthez, 
from whence a great proportion of the Protestants 
fled. They considered themselves compromised 
by the active part taken against Renard. 

The king shortly after returned to Pau, where 
he directed the church of St. Martin, then the 
only one, to be resumed by the Romanists, and to 
be purified by the usual ceremonies after its pro- 
fanation by the Protestants. He caused the act 
of union between France and Navarre to be re- 
gistered. He directed the bishops and clergy to 
take their seats at the council of state and the 
meeting of estates ; and placed them in full pos- 
session of their pristine wealth and honour. He 
then, having overturned the laws and institutions 
of the last fifty years, demanded an oath of fealty 
from his subjects, and, very characteristically, 
bound himself to respect and maintain their 
rights and privileges ! On concluding these au- 
thoritative acts, his majesty joined in a solemn 
procession and mass, carrying a lighted taper 
through the streets in a very edifying manner. 
Five days sufficed for the despatch of these mo- 



GRIEVANCES OF THE PROTESTANTS. 183 

mentous affairs, after which Louis XIII. (sur- 
named by the Romanist historians, the Just) 
quitted the castle of his ancestors (the scene of so 
many interesting events) and the people, whose 
institutions he had destroyed, fully persuaded by 
his confessor (the Jesuit Darnoux) that he had 
acted piously towards God, and wisely towards 
men. 



CHAPTER XI. 



PROGRESSIVE DEPRIVATION OF PROTESTANT 
PRIVILEGES. 

The intelligence of the overthrow of the Pro- 
testant church in Navarre, was received with 
the utmost indignation by the Huguenots of 
France. They saw, in the course taken by the 
king, the fate that was ultimately destined for 
themselves. A simultaneous rising, in the Pro- 
testant districts of Languedoc and Guienne, took 
place against the Romanists of those provinces. 
The royal forces in Beam being called into action 
in those districts, the repressed spirit of the 
Navarrese sprung into reaction. An assembly of 
the Protestants was held at Pau, at which resolu- 
tions were passed declaratory of their determina- 
tion to resist the resumption of Romanist sway. 
An attempt was also made to surprise Navarrenx ; 
but the loss suffered on the occasion only tended 
to exasperate the country. The spirit of resist- 



DEPRIVATION OF PRIVILEGES. 185 

ance again became general, and the governor, the 
marquis de Laforce, found it expedient to sanction 
the non-execution of the king's edict respecting 
the Romanists. The triumph was a short one. 
In May 1621, the duke d'Epernon was commis- 
sioned by the king to enter B£arn with a force of 
two thousand foot and five hundred horse, which 
being joined by the Romanist party, enabled him, 
in three weeks, to resume possession of the whole 
country. The marquis de Laforce was deprived 
of the government, and compelled to fly; the 
marshal de Themines, a rigid Romanist, being 
appointed in his stead. The Romanists were 
again placed in possession of the churches and 
ecclesiastical property ; those of the Protestant 
party, who were compromised by the late proceed- 
ings, flying to the neighbouring recesses of the 
Pyrennees. 

This detour of the king's forces, enabled the 
Protestants of the neighbouring provinces of 
France to make head against his authority. So 
stoutly did they maintain their ground, that Louis 
himself found it necessary to appear on the scene of 
action, and on the 16th of August, laid siege to 
Montauban, with a force of ten thousand men, and 
forty-five pieces of artillery, a tremendous train at 
that period. The marquis de Laforce, with many 
of the Bearnoise refugees, were in the town, 



186 CHAPTER XI. 

under the chieftainship of the duke de Rohan, but 
the whole of the garrison was under two thousand 
men, though the citizens, and even the women, 
distinguished themselves in active and enthusiastic 
opposition to the besiegers. M. Charles, the 
professor of divinity at Orthez, was also there, and 
contributed with other zealous Protestant minis- 
ters to maintain the spirit of the garrison and 
people. After attempting every mode of attack 
during a siege of three months, Louis was com- 
pelled, to his great mortification, to retire with 
great loss and dishonour. 

This defeat inspirited the Protestants The 
people of Montpellier rose and drove all the 
Romish priests, monks, and nuns, out of their 
city on the 21st of November, a week after the 
king's retreat from Montauban. The example 
was widely followed, but the Bearnoise were 
kept in check by the troops and Romish refugees, 
who fell back on that province. By a detachment 
of these, Lescun, the indefatigable and talented 
opponent of the Romanists, was taken. He was 
carried a prisoner to Bordeaux, where being 
charged with having perverted the public mind 
against the king by his writings and speeches, he 
was condemned to have his head, legs, and arms cut 
off, which cruel sentence was carried into effect 
on the 18th of May, 1622. A very different fate 



DEPRIVATION OF PRIVILEGES. 187 

awaited the marquis de Laforce, only three days 
afterwards. The marquis had attained that period 
of life, when action in the field is unsuitable. 
His long continuance in the honorable post of 
governor of Beam, had made the loss of that 
dignity peculiarly grievous to him. It is pos- 
sible also, that the calmer consideration, which 
increasing age produced, had led him to calculate 
the probable fatal termination of the contest he 
was engaged in. Whatever were the conducive 
motives, the leading one was obviously his own 
aggrandisement; for, after a short negotiation 
with the court, he quitted the ranks of the re- 
formers, and was honoured with the baton of a 
marshal of France, on the 21st of May, 1622, 
At this period, the king was again in the field 
against the Protestants. After various fortune, 
a peace was signed between Louis and the duke 
de Rohan, highly favorable in point of stipulation, 
to the cause of the latter. The edict of Nantes was 
re-confirmed, and the Protestants placed, nominally, 
in possession of all the privileges they desired. 

This peace enabled the king to proceed with 
his measures in Beam. The Jurats, or town 
councillors, of those places most noted for their 
adhesion to Protestantism, were removed, and their 
posts filled with Romanists. The reformed clergy 
were turned out of their churches, and the priests 



188 CHAPTER XI. 

reinstated. The Protestants were denied the use 
of bells, and admission to the church-yards. 
Their schoolmasters were left without salaries, 
and consequently, were obliged to giye up their 
occupations. On the other hand, in those parts 
of the country where there was no power to 
coerce, the Protestants refused to pay tithes to 
the Romish priests, or to allow any sums to be 
paid out of the public rates for purpose connected 
with their worship. At Orthez, the cordeliers 
entered the town, to resume possession of their 
ancient domicile, under the auspices of the new 
Jurats. But the possession was disputed by those 
who had purchased the building. The Jurats 
ordered force to be used to obtain entrance, but 
the people rose and drove the cordeliers away, 
wounding and maltreating several. Such was the 
state of society which the edict of Louis produced. 
The sudden stoppage of the tide of opinion 
caused it at first to rush with more force, but the 
barricades to stem it were every day raised higher 
and higher. The Jesuits and the Capuchins were 
established at Pau. The Barnabites opened a 
college at Ney, while the Protestant seminary 
was ordered to be closed. In order to instigate 
the young and aspiring to bend to their doctrines, 
the government filled up every vacant office with 
Romanists ; while every discouragement was offered 



DEPRIVATION OF PRIVILEGES. 189 

to those of the reformed church who held offices 
by patent or custom. So bound and shackled was 
the province, that though another war between 
the Huguenots and the king broke out in 1625, 
yet the Navarrese evinced no sympathy in action. 
In February 1626, peace was again concluded 
between the king and the Protestants. The first 
fruit of it was an edict issued by Louis to the 
people of Navarre, stating that their country was 
not included in the edict of Nantes, although 
now united with France : that grave inconveniences 
had arisen from having Protestants mingled with 
Catholics in the courts of that nation ; finally that 
the king forbade all collections, by ministers or 
others, that were not authorized by letters patent 
specially obtained. This was at once stopping up 
the source and fountain of the reformed worship, 
as well as throwing a national discredit on its 
members. The public grant which, it had been 
stipulated, should be allowed to the reformed 
church, was altogether a nullity, and, by the 
closure of private resource, the fall and ruin of 
that institution was ensured. The flagrant treachery 
and stern tyranny of the measure, increased its 
effect, since the hopelessness of opposition was, 
thereby, more completely manifested. In 1628, 
the fall of Rochelle, the bulwark of the Protes- 
tant cause in France, deprived that party of their 



190 CHAPTER XI. 

last hope of successful resistance to the yoke im- 
posed upon them. 

It is worthy of remark, as evincing the rotatory 
nature of human progress, that the sons of many 
of the most ardent Protestants of Navarre were 
zealous combatants in the king's army against 
Rochelle. Eight years only had elapsed, since 
the complete restitution of Romanism had been 
effected: the sprouting branches had been trained 
in the way the government desired them to go ; 
the influence of worldly principle and present 
hope had lured many ; the want of any principle 
had, possibly, led more; for in the contest of 
opinions, a sort of neutral ground is usually es- 
tablished, where a refuge may be found from the 
sway of either. How vitally important, to the 
well-being of society, is the nature of a govern- 
ment ! How deeply responsible are those who 
constitute it ! 

The fate of the town of Pamiers, in the county 
of Foix, will afford an example of the mode of 
treatment inflicted on those who adhered to their 
faith. Pamiers had declared for the duke de 
Rohan, in the outbreak of 1625. In the ensuing 
year it was taken by assault by the king's forces. 
The governor was executed and the remaining 
Protestants were driven out of the place. The 
churches, after being purified from Protestant 



DEPRIVATION OF PRIVILEGES. 191 

contagion, were occupied by the Romish clergy. 
All other modes of worship were rigidly pro- 
hibited. The love of home, (the altar-hearth of 
home,) induced the expelled citizens to creep 
back to their birth-spot. Some conformed to the 
Roman faith ; others put on the semblance of 
conformity. A little band, however remained of 
faithful disciples, who, gradually, spread around 
them a negative influence, till, at last, the Pro- 
testants again became so numerous as to come 
forth and claim participation in the rights of 
citizenship. But the arm of power was again ex- 
tended. The parliament of Thoulouse issued 
mandates for the suppression of the rising body, 
and, as the Romanist historians express it, — 
' peace was once more established in the town.' 
But ' in those times there was no peace to him 
that went out, nor to him that came in, but great 
vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the 
countries. ; ' (2 Chron. xv. 5.) 

The family of Laterrade at Pau, were Protest- 
ants. Two of the daughters, Jeanne and Marie 
Laterrade, had been lured by the pomp and spe- 
cious arguments of the priests, so as to evince an 
inclination to become Romanists. The unhappy 
parents urged every argument against this declen- 
sion, and proceeded to a more authoritative en- 
deavour to deter their children from apostacy. 



192 



CHAPTER XI. 



The disappointed priests applied to the parliament 
of Pau, by whose orders, the two females were 
taken from their parent's house, and placed in the 
convent of Notre Dame. The protestant consis- 
tory took up the case, on the part of the parents, 
and addressed the governor. But the application was 
vain. The grasp of " the Church/' was inflexible. 

But the impatient expectations of the Romish 
party were not realized with sufficient rapidity. 
In 1633 the king issued an edict restricting the 
Protestant ministers from preaching in any other 
places than where they resided. This was an 
effectual crush to missionary exertions, or the 
extension of individual ability. As it allowed no 
substitution in the case of death or disability, the 
enforcement of this edict necessarily led to more 
and more restriction. The synod was also pro- 
hibited from executing any ecclesiastical function, 
without the consent of the parliament. Not even 
a day of fasting or prayer could be simultaneously 
held without the sanction of the Romish authorities. 

In 1640, more coercive measures were adopted. 
The parliament of Pau decreed that no Protestant 
place of worship should be allowed to exist in 
any place where there were fewer than ten resi- 
dent families of that persuasion. 1 

1 A measure of a similar nature was proposed in the British 
parliament, with respect to the Protestant church in Ireland, 
in 1835. 



DEPRIVATION OF PRIVILEGES. 193 

This decree roused the Navarrese Protestants 
to exert themselves against the desolating oppres- 
sion that was every day bearing more heavily on 
them. The synod drew rip a petition to the king 
against this measure and the other restrictions 
under which they laboured. The monarch did 
not condescend to notice the petition. 

At this period the Protestants were much dis- 
pirited by a secession from their body of one of 
their most popular ministers, Martin, minister of 
Cartets. He had been engaged for thirty-seven 
years in that office, and was now in the seventieth 
year of his age. His only son had been brought 
up under his own eye, and was intended to suc- 
ceed him in his ministerial office. The fond fa- 
ther, however, thought that his son's talents were 
worthy of a more finished education, and, as there 
were now no professors of his own faith, he was 
tempted by the high sounding titles of those of the 
Barnabite college at Nay, to trust him to their 
tuition. Young Martin had nearly attained his 
twentieth year, and fortified, as it was conceived, 
by early and long acquaintance with the tenets of 
the reformed church, of which he was considered 
a sincere disciple, he set out to be instructed by 
the monks of Nay. 1 Here his progress was rapid, 

1 It is surprising to find many English protestants on the con- 
tinent, sending their children, with strange inconsistency or re- 
K 



194 CHAPTER XI. 

so much so that the Barnabite brethren considered 
him worthy of every effort to detach him from the 
faith he was brought up in, and to place his light 
in their own candlestick. They cautiously ab- 
stained, however, from attacking his doctrines, but 
first wrought him into implicit credence in apos- 
tolical succession, and the authority of the church. 
The descent was then rapid to a total prostration 
before those who claimed the inheritance of that 
authority. When they had entangled him in the 
mazes of school divinity, he was easily secured and 
bound, and, in this state, sent to the monastery 
of Nolan, to enter on his noviciate as a Barnabite 
monk. 

The father of Martin knew nothing of this 
change in his son's opinions until it was too late 
to counteract them. Arguments, prayers, en- 
treaties, were ineffectual. In due time young 
Martin became a monk, and the disappointed 
parent refused all intercourse with his perverted 
son: but the young Barnabite now took a new 
view of his filial duty — he determined to convert 
his father. For two years the young man at- 
tempted to gain an interview with his angry pa- 
rent. He was allowed to leave his convent to 

ligious indifference, to Romanist places of instruction. If it be a 
blessed work to be accessary to the saving of a soul, what must it 
be to aid in destroying one ? 



DEPRIVATION OF PRIVILEGES. 195 

reside near the minister of Cartets, till at last his 
patient assiduity appeared to soften his father's 
heart. He was admitted to his house again ; the 
old man thought that u he who was lost was found," 
but the religious " prodigal " came not to repent. 
Strange to say he wrought so powerfully on his 
father's mind that he won him over from the faith 
of scripture, to " the doctrines of men." Still 
more singular it was to find that the elder Martin 
became an active coadjutor with his son in mis- 
sionary effort. He published a statement of his 
reasons for quitting the faith he had advocated for 
seven and thirty years. It was profusely circu- 
lated by the Romanist party, and drew general 
attention to the aged convert, who was successfully 
used as a lure to the people. A day was ap- 
pointed for his public recantation in the cathedral 
of Lescar, to which he was led by crowds of 
priests in solemn procession, and attended by mul- 
titudes of people from the surrounding district. 
After a Te Deum, the ex-minister recanted pub- 
licly, and exhorted his hearers (amongst whom it 
is said were eight hundred protestants) to quit the 
way of perdition, and return into the bosom of 
the church. 

In the ensuing year, 1643, Louis XIII. de- 
prived the ministers of the reformed church in 
Navarre, of the stipend he had engaged to give 

K 2 



196 CHAPTER XI. 

them, on the resumption of ecclesiastical property 
by the Romanists. These allowances had been 
irregularly paid, but being now entirely discon T 
tinued, occasioned great distress. It will be re- 
collected that in 1626, the Protestants had been 
prohibited from making collections of money with- 
out licence from the government, but this decree 
was now relaxed, and permission given to the 
Protestants to support themselves. This act of 
grace was the last which providence allowed 
Louis XIII. to extend to the Bearnoise Protest- 
ants. He quitted this world on the 14th of May, 
1643. 



CHAPTER XII. 



LOUIS XIV. TYRANNOUS TREATMENT OF THE 
PROTESTANTS. THEIR DESTRUCTION. PRESENT 
STATE OF PROTESTANTISM. 

The history of Louis XIV. is, in relation to his 
Protestant subjects, a mere epitaph on their tomb. 
His reign, like that of his predecessor, commenced 
with assurances of favour and privileges ; but long 
before its termination, those privileges were de- 
stroyed, and that favour turned to deadly hatred. 
The Romanists do not conceal, that it was the 
fixed purpose of those two monarchs to destroy 
Protestantism, and that all their declarations of 
protection and advantage, were only held out to 
keep their victims in a steady posture on the block, 
till the moment for execution came. 

The assurances made to the Protestants by Car- 
dinal Mazarine, in the name of the young king, 
were accepted as realities, notwithstanding the 
experience of the past reign. If the edicts of 



198 CHAPTER XII. 

Nantes and Fontainbleau were confirmed, it ap- 
peared to the guileless reasoners, that all interven- 
ing and derogatory decrees were, ipso facto, 
abolished. But this was not royal logic. The 
Bearnoise reformers, inspirited by that view of the 
king's declaration, began again to raise their heads 
and to extend their doctrines. This called forth 
the voice of authority, and on the 29 th of January, 
1644, a decree was issued, enforcing all the re- 
strictions and penalties published during the pre- 
vious reign. To enforce these, a commission, of 
six members of the Navarrese council of state, was 
appointed. The Protestants were unwilling to 
consider the assurances made to them, only a few 
months before, as a mere nullity. They pe- 
titioned the queen-regent, Anna of Austria, for 
the allowance of such privileges as were essential 
to their existence as a body, especially for the 
establishment of seminaries of their own commu- 
nion. On the 14th of July, they received the 
royal reply. There were a sufficient number of 
seminaries in Beam, but as a special act of grace, 
a certain number of Protestant youths were to be 
educated, at the king's expence — in the Jesuit 
college at Pau ! 

At the town of St. Sever the reformers, soon 
after the king's declaration, commenced rebuilding 
their church, which had been destroyed in the late 



louis xiv. 199 

wars. This act of assumption was discovered by 
the commissioners of the council, and the heretical 
design prevented. At Nerac, where the majority 
of the inhabitants were of the Reformed religion, 
a school was opened for their children, but the 
hand of power quickly closed it. The same attempt 
and subsequent abolition, occurred in many other 
places, shewing that the vigour of life was still in 
the Protestant body, notwithstanding all the efforts 
of their enemies to subdue it. It was only for 
existence that the Reformers struggled. Their 
political importance was destroyed. They had 
neither force nor leaders ; for all interchange and 
power of union being cut off, by the severe restric- 
tions under which they laboured, no concert could 
exist amongst them, and they offered no advantages 
of aid to the ambitious or discontented heads of 
parties. But a purer principle, a more decidedly 
religious feeling, seems to have prevailed amongst 
them, from being thus secluded from political 
strife. Even when the civil war of the Fronde 
broke out, at the end of the year 1648, the lure 
of expectation or the wish for triumph, could not 
excite them into the contest against the king. 
This loyal demeanour gained them the cheap grace 
of another confirmation of the edict of Nantes. 
But the danger having passed, the persecution 
against the Protestants again commenced. 



200 CHAPTER XII, 

Notwithstanding every act of coercion, the doc- 
trines of reform were not only firmly maintained 
but extended. It was ' a trial of the spirits.' The 
fearful, the weak in faith and mind, had been 
drawn out of the ranks of reform, by the proceed- 
ings of the Romanists ; but the strong, the vigor- 
ous and firm remained, and became stronger from 
the loss of the weak. But the time was approach- 
ing when ' the three hundred of Thermopylae ' 
were to take their station in the pass. 

The Romish hierarchy in France were dissatis- 
fied with the slow process of extinction, which the 
wary cardinal at the head of the French govern- 
ment thought it expedient to adopt. In their 
Christian feeling they considered that the f coup de 
grace'' should not be delayed. The assembly of 
the clergy of France, on the representation of the 
bishop of Commenges, addressed the Queen Regent 
to this effect in 1650. They represented that the 
Protestants were surreptitiously educating their 
children in their own opinions ; that they were 
blasphemously building places for their heretical 
worship ; and that they were unjustly collecting 
money for the support of their ministers, instead 
of contributing to the wealth of " the only true 
church." But, in the midst of the wars in which 
the government was involved, and the treachery 
and tergiversation of the leading characters of the 



TREATMENT OF THE PROTESTANTS. 201 

time, it was not expedient to crush at once the 
hopes of two millions of people. Acts of alternate 
grace and repression were extended towards them, 
by which they were retained in humble depend- 
ence, till the period — the fulness of time — had 
arrived for their destruction. 

In August 1684, the Treaty of Ratisbon having 
put an end to the state of war in which Louis had 
been involved during his whole reign, preparations 
were made for cleansing the land from the conta- 
mination of Protestantism. On the 23d of the 
same month (August 1684) an ' ordinance ' was 
issued, prohibiting any reformed minister from 
remaining more than three years in one place. It 
also prohibited the serving any other ministra- 
tion within twenty leagues from the " temple" 
vacated, or from returning to such vacated place 
until after twelve years ; nor was any minister, 
who had retired from his office, permitted to reside 
nearer than six leagues from the scene of his for- 
mer labours. This was separating the officers from 
the troops, previously to breaking them. The 
Protestants remonstrated on the occasion, and in 
the statement which they drew up, enumerated the 
violations of the Edict of Nantes, which they had 
successively suffered. ' II etoit' (says a Protestant 
writer Martimere) ■ si aise de prouver qu'on l'avoit 
viole, qu'il y avoit une espece de ridicule h. 
l'entreprendre.' 



202 CHAPTER XII. 

Twelve days after, (4th September,) another 
1 ordonnance' closed all private Protestant chapels. 
On the 8th of January 1685, an interdiction was 
laid on the ministers in public chapels. On the 
9th of July, it was forbidden to Protestants to be 
either printers or booksellers ; nor was any Pro- 
testant allowed to retain a Romanist as a servant. 
These and other restrictive regulations were heaped 
upon the abused reformers, gradually pressing 
them down and preventing them from effort, just 
previous to their final overthrow. But these were 
tender mercies, compared to the means employed 
to extirpate Protestants in Beam and the western 
parts of France. 

In September 1684, marshal Boufflers was sent 
into Beam with a strong force, who were billeted 
on the Protestants throughout the country, and 
upon whom they lived at discretion. Conformity 
to the Romish church was the only means of ex- 
emption. The utmost severity was exercised 
towards the unfortunate people, whose complaints 
were utterly unheeded. In the different towns 
public notice was given that, on a certain day, the 
troops would enter, and that. all Protestants, who 
would conform in the interval, would be exone- 
rated from the burden of their support and unli- 
censed conduct. At Oloron, this intimation was 
made by the bishop, to whom the inhabitants, 



TREATMENT OF THE PROTESTANTS. 203 

scared by the apprehension of the cruelties endured 
by others, almost entirely submitted. At Pau, a 
number of respectable Protestants offered to sub- 
mit, on condition that the two ministers of the 
town should be released from prison. To the 
honour of the reformed clergy of B&arn, the name 
of only one of them (Goulard) is mentioned as 
having renounced his faith. 

These tyrannous measures (which were called 
la Dragonade) produced so much apparent con- 
formity, that public rejoicings were ordered to be 
held at Pau. This festivity must have much 
resembled the dance of negroes in an African 
slave-ship ! 

On the 22nd of October, 1685, that fatal decree 
was registered, which destroyed evangelical reli- 
gion in France, by the revocation of the edict of 
Nantes. In Beam, the Protestants had already 
been dragonaded into exterior conformity, but 
many fled into the fastnesses of the Pyrennees for 
shelter. Only fifteen days were allowed by the 
decree of revocation for conformity to the Romish 
church, or the infliction of penalties for recusancy. 
Those who did not at once " fly from the wrath to 
come," which their fellow-men had impiously 
taken upon them to fulminate, were compelled to 
bear the loss of either life, liberty, or religion. 
Troops were dispersed in all directions, in pur- 



204 CHAPTER XII. 

suit of fugitives, to whom no quarter was given ; 
and, to prevent escape by sea, a penalty of three 
thousand francs was imposed for every Protestant 
sheltered by captains or owners of vessels. 

The events that occurred at this period, and the 
cruel results occasioned by the revocation of the 
edict of Nantes, are registered in the history of 
every Protestant nation, to whose refuge and 
sympathy, many thousands of the unfortunate 
Huguenots were enabled to fly. A medal struck 
in memory of this Romish act of faith by Louis 
XIV, states that 2,000,000 of Calvinists were 
brought back to the church, (' ob vicies centena 
millia calviniarorum, &c.') ; by which it would 
appear that they constituted a tenth part of the 
then population of France. At least two hundred 
thousand escaped, but the computation on the 
medal appears to be inclusive of the aggregate 
number. In the south of France the Protestants 
were, at the time, on the increase, a circumstance 
which, probably, led to the apparently sudden 
determination to stop their progress. Eighty 
6 temples ' had been built in Beam during the 
reign of Jeanne d'Albret, and the first ten years of 
that of Henry IV. At the period of the revoca- 
tion of the edict of Nantes, nearly three hundred 
Protestant places of worship existed in that coun- 
try. These were probably, mere " upper cham- 



TREATMENT OF THE PROTESTANTS. 205 

bers," unostentatious places of assembly for the 
most part, and yet publicly known and designated 
as Protestant " temples." Many parts of Navarre 
must necessarily, (from the severity of the edicts,) 
have been without any ostensible places of wor- 
ship, and the shrinking Protestants have assem- 
bled only " in dens and caves of the earth." The 
number of known places of Protestant worship 
equalled those of the Romanists ; it is not, there- 
fore, an unfounded assumption, to calculate the 
former at two- thirds of the entire Bearnoise popu- 
lation. The town of Salies, the second of size and 
population in Beam, is mentioned as having suff- 
ered much from the dragonade, on account of the 
majority of the inhabitants being Protestants, As 
the population of Beam, at that period, only 
amounted to about half of its present number, 
(450,000), it is probable there were nearly 150,000 
Protestants subject to the tyrannous edict of 
1685. 

At present, there are scarcely five thousand 
nominal Protestants in this district. Persecution 
and patronage having been removed, they have 
dropped, in the absence of excitement, into an 
apparent state of lukewarmness. Here and there 
a zealous minister " prophecies upon the bones," 
and " a shaking " is visible. But the French 
character is not disposed to be sectarian in its 



206 CHAPTER XIT. 

humbler sense, of separation and inferiority. The 
hubbub of concourse, or exterior distinction, are 
requisite to engage them. If a ( coup de religion 3 
could be effected with sufficient notoriety in any 
part of France, the excitement of a spirit might 
possibly spread; or, if Protestant " temples " could 
be reared, like their stately prototype of Cha- 
renton, 1 they could no doubt be speedily filled. 
But these very considerations are arguments for 
increased missionary efforts ; and, happily, they 
are now in operation in several parts of France. 
Within the last few years, Protestant congrega- 
tions have been formed at Avignon, Rheims, 
Tours, and other places ; humble indeed as to 
number, but still forming links in the chain which 
may one day receive the electric fire from heaven, 
that may corruscate over and enlighten the whole 
of France. 

The French reformed church is divided into 
sixteen synodal districts, having eighty-five con- 
sistories, and two hundred and eighty places of 
worship. There are also thirty-one consistories, 
and two hundred and eight churches of the ' Con- 

1 The Protestant temple of Charenton was destroyed by the 
mob of Paris, who poured forth to level it, in October L685. The 
event is recorded by a medal then struck, representing the stately 
edifice in ruins, its fluted pillars of stone and solid masonry lying 
around in scattered heaps. 



TREATMENT OF THE PROTESTANTS. 207 

fession of Augsburg,' or Lutheran faith. The 
Societe Evangelique de France has, likewise, 
fourteen settled ministers, and eight Evangelistes, 
or missionaries. The European, or Continental 
society of London, and the Societe Evangelique 
of Geneva, are also in the field, independently of 
the Societe Biblique, and other bodies of aux- 
iliaries. 

The estimated number of Protestants in France, 
at present, is about a million and a half. Some 
raise the amount higher, but " they are not all 
Israel, which are of Israel." The droppings from 
the Romish church do not much swell the stream; 
but there are many of the Guizot school, (such as 
in England, are called ( rational Christians,') who 
roll with it. " The church of the Laodiceans " 
has many followers here. 

In the south-west of France, (particularly the 
ancient . Beam, the mild plastic character of 
the people, and historic recollections seem to 
invite missionary exertion. The sun that has set 
has left some warmth in the soil. May it rise 
again and endure, not merely as in former days, 
during the course of a polar summer, but " until 
time shall be no longer." 

THE END. 



L. AND O. SEELKY, THAMES DITTON, SURREY. 



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